Financial Management of the Thai Health Care System

In October 2001, Thailand introduced a universal health-care scheme providing full access to health services offered by designated providers. The scheme is at the centre of the Government’s health care reform policy and is supported by EU through the “Health Care Reform” project (THA/AIDCO/2002/0411) whose objective is to achieve greater equity, efficiency, quality and social sustainability of the health-care system. The ILO project concerns the ‘Financial Management’ component of the wider Health Care Reform project, which aims to enhance and secure the financial governance of the national health care system through (i) reform of existing financial management systems, through improved monitoring, financial reporting, accounting, and (ii) a strengthening of the institutional and human capacity with both the direct training of Financial Officers and managers and the development of a custom-made training curriculum for nation-wide replication. A parallel component of training activities linked directly to the wider Health Care Reform Project is also included in the project to be administered by the ILO. The development objective of the project is the enhanced financial governance of the nation’s health care schemes contributing to the long-term sustainability of the Thai health care system thus ensuring quality healthcare for all. This is directly in line with ILO Strategic Objective 3a.1 which aims at improved policies and strategies for the extension of social protection to all. The immediate objective is the improvement of the tools and processes of financial management for the national health sector, and to provide the training and the capacity-building means for the national counterpart organisations to ensure the long-term sustainability of those processes. A summary of project activities follows : - undertake a thorough review of present financial procedures, accounting systems, the calculation of capitation fees and payment systems and the present state of the data and statistical reporting system; - draft an initial outline of an Information and Financial Management system; - develop a blueprint for annual reports on the operation of the UC scheme and the national health budget on the basis of information generated by the system, including a core set of indicators to be used for performance monitoring; - develop a model for a national health budget. - coordinate and oversee the training programme for the Financial Management component particularly with respect to the training of four national health experts in the joint ILO/University of Maastricht Masters course in Social Protection Financing (two each in academic years 2005/06 and 2006/7), experts who will subsequently assume and continue project activities; - develop a university-based diploma course on health care financing for financial managers in the health care system; - together with project management, administer the training programme linked to the wider Health Care Reform project.

Project symbol

THA/05/01/EEC

Admin unit

SEC/SOC

Start date

01/08/2005

End date

31/07/2009

Total allocation

935231

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

930830

Development Partners

Delegation of the European Union to Thailand

Country/Countries

Thailand

Outcomes

Occupational Safety and Health