Thai healthcare staff demand reduction to 100 hour working week

Thailand’s overworked healthcare professionals have petitioned the leader of the opposition party to help them get better working conditions after it was revealed most of them work about 100 hours a week.

The Thai Frontline Physician Confederation yesterday handed a letter to the leader of the Move Forward Party, Pita Limjaroenrat, outlining their demands.

Chutinart Chinudomporn, a female Thai doctor representative from the Thai Frontline Physician Confederation, says doctors, nurses, and other workers in the Thai healthcare service are exhausted every day because they work about 100 hours per week. This affects the health and well-being of the nation’s frontline health workers, and many have been forced to quit. But this isn’t the only problem Chutinart said.

Medical staff could easily make mistakes if they are exhausted. Patients suffer when healthcare workers are tired, there is a chance they could get the wrong medication, and patients in the operating theatre could be harmed.

Chutinart says the confederation would like to reduce working hours from 100 hours per week to about 80 hours. She says medical workers should get at least 8 hours of rest per day to reduce workers’ health problems and errors in operation and treatment.

The Move Forward Party Leader, Pita, agreed to the confederation’s request and added the lack of medical professionals in the industry needs to be addressed.

The 41 year old MP says Thai healthcare should improve its primary healthcare sector and added he would raise the issue with the labor commission next week.

The issue was recently trending on Thai social media. And on June 22, a Thai netizen, who claimed to be a doctor in a public hospital, posted her story on a Thai discussion forum, Pantip, with the headline “Don’t let your children be a doctor in a public hospital! Run away!”

The woman said that anyone thinking about a career in the health service should “carefully consider it.” She said she is overworked and has to work even when she is sick or infected with Covid-19. The doctor said she didn’t have any time to rest or spend with family, and added it was almost impossible for anyone to take a holiday.

The woman went on to talk about her low salary and how it didn’t reflect the hours she worked. She also said some staff hadn’t been paid salaries in 6-8 months. She suggested that those who wanted a career in the healthcare profession should consider working at a private hospital and not a public hospital.

Many netizens suggested in the comment section that the woman should resign. Some said she should move to a private hospital if the situation was bad as she said. One netizen claimed she was a former doctor in a public hospital and faced the same problems.

SOURCE: Khaosod