Phuket doctors unaffected by health care pay reform

PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) today confirmed that the introduction of the new P4P “Pay for performance” system of calculating rural doctors’ remuneration will not affect any public health care services in Phuket.

The news follows at least 146 doctors – among them 11 specialists –announcing they will resign their positions at public hospitals across the country in protest of the new P4P pay system.

The mass resignations follow weeks of protests in Bangkok.

Some doctors have chosen to work at private hospitals after learning that the ministry’s new medical salary system would cut their additional allowances – unfairly, they say.

“Previously, public medical workers in rural areas were granted allowances based on the remoteness of their posts and the number of years they had worked. Now the allowances are based on their workload,” an officer at the PPHO explained.

However, “Under the Ministry of Health, no part of Phuket province is classified as a rural area, so the introduction of P4P does not affect us, and no medical staff in Phuket have resigned over this,” the officer added.

— Chutharat Plerin