Thai PM promises patients to receive treatment on equal basis

BANGKOK, June 23 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has announced that all the government's three existing medical welfare schemes are to offer medical services to patients on an equal basis, including those suffering from HIV and chronic kidney disease. Thai Public Health Minister Wittaya Buranasiri acknowledged Saturday, during the weekly broadcast of Premier Yingluck, that several patients have complained medical services given under the Ministry of Labour’s Social Security Fund, the Ministry of Finance’s Civil Servant’s Welfare Fund and his ministry's 30-baht universal healthcare scheme are not fair to date. Wittaya said the prime minister, therefore, wants to see all patients, including those suffering from HIV or AIDS and from severe kidney disease, receive a similar treatment, quoting the prime minister as ordering that all the three existing medical welfare schemes are to provide both treatment and medicinal practices to patients without interruption. According to the prime minister, all the three medical welfare schemes are to offer the same medicines to the patients and there is no need for hospitals to store medicines in large stocks because the state-run Government Pharmaceutical Organisation will produce medicines and compare prices for those three medical welfare schemes. Wittaya noted that the idea, if materialised, can save state budget as much as 270 billion baht annually on buying medicines by those three healthcare programmes, and that his ministry will, from next month, allow people to return expired medicines and they will receive eggs in return. (TNA)