THE National Health Security Office (NHSO) may ask state hospitals nationwide that are already coping with heavy losses to return 4 billion baht with this impacting medical treatments, Naewna quoted a senator as saying this morning (July 19).
Dr.Veerapun Suvannamai, a senator and vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Health, said in a social media post that an announcement made by NHSO this month stated that its hospital inspection method may have led to “worryingly waste of budget.”
The agency will now conduct random sampling of only 3% of medical records and apply extrapolation to reduce the full budget.
“Simply put, they only check a little bit, but cut the entire budget,” he said.
“The workload is overwhelming, so they (doctors and nurses) may not fully complete medical records as the system requires.
“On the other hand, NHSO asks to do 3% of the work, randomly check, but will get a 100% refund. I think this way of thinking is strange,” he wrote.
The result is that more than 955 state hospitals nationwide may have their budgets cut by more than 4 billion baht in fiscal 2025. Even though NHSO claims that the money will be returned to the “Global Budget”, the impact of the punishment inflicted on these state hospitals is immediate with their cash flow disappearing and it will probably not be easy to get the money back.
Even more worrying is that the inpatient (IP) budget for 2026 increased by only 3.5% while other budgets, such as that for innovation, increased by 72.9%.
And when there is real evidence of corruption, such as using the name of a dead person to claim budget or no patients receiving services at all, the hospitals have to only refund the cases discovered with extrapolation method not used.
NHSO also does not immediately report to the police, only doing so if the full refund is not made, Dr. Veerapun said.
Some hospitals may now have to reduce services, reduce the number of staff, or limit the number of patients they can accept, he warned.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Patients waiting for treatment at a state hospital. Photo: Naewna
Insert: Senator Dr. Veerapun Suvannamai. Photo: Naewna
Front Page: A patient at a hospital. Photo: Naewna
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