READINESS TO ORGANIZE PRIMARY HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN THAILAND

Abstract

This research article was to study the readiness to organize service systems that affect Thai people's access to primary care services and to study the operational factors according to the strategic plan affecting the effectiveness of access to primary health care services at the provincial level. This study was mixed-method research. In the qualitative research section, content analysis from secondary data and data obtained from interviews with 17 experts were analyzed. Secondary data was also used to analyze in the quantitative research section. The results showed that at present, the organization of the primary health care system is consistent with the operation support policy of the primary care system. However, there are several problems with the availability of necessary resources such as personnel, budgets, information systems, etc. Implementation of the primary care unit's strategic plan is a factor affecting access to the primary health care system. Regarding to the percentage of subdistrict health promoting hospitals that approved with the quality development criteria of starred subdistrict health promoting hospital and the percentage of people listed in the primary care unit and the network of primary care units have a statistically significant positive influence on the effectiveness of access to primary health care services (p = .01). All these results showed that the readiness in the service quality and the raising awareness of service provision are important and affect people's access to primary health care services. Therefore, there should be support for factors in providing services that meet the needs and develop communication patterns of service units with the people.