Knowledge Synthesis and Situations of Public Policy Driving in an Issue of Health Rights of Vulnerable Groups

Abstract

This study was funded by the National Health Commission Office (NHCO) with objectives to review the definitions of vulnerability and the vulnerable groups to examine health situations of the vulnerable groups and work operations related to the health of the vulnerable groups in Thailand. This study was conducted with a documentary research method, and data were collected from online sources, books and legal documents from 2007- 2017. The findings revealed that vulnerability could be divided into different dimensions including physical and mental vulnerability, vulnerability caused by external and internal factors, vulnerability in a dimension related to social welfare, vulnerability from individual causes as a victim. Factors leading to the vulnerability were root causes, dynamic pressure, and unsafe conditions. The situations of the vulnerable groups that rendered them unable to access healthcare services were found that the youths encountered deprivation while the elderly people in rural areas experienced far distances from a medical facility and their residences, and lack of caregivers. Foreign labors who were not in a social security system were required to take responsibility for expenses related to their health. The impoverished populations considered only the economic dimension with no regard to equity, equality and needs while the widowed women in the three southern-border provinces suffered from unrest situations and loss of their household’s head. The female inmates encountered congestion in their sleeping buildings and there were certain risks when an inmate was taken to receive external services due to possibility of absconding. Homeless and displaced people had no identification documents, and they thus had no right for medical treatments and social welfares.