• 
• 

Published on September 27, 2007

The proposal will be tabled at the October 10 Cabinet meeting, office secretary-general Dr Sanguan Nitayarumphong said.

He said kidney transplants cost between Bt150,000 and Bt200,000.

The office would seek state funds of Bt100 billion over the coming 15 years to pay for 7,500 patients each year.

Injury or disease can cause serious kidney failure. Transplants were the best treatment for end-stage renal disease, Sanguan said.

The office would work with

the Health Promotion Foundation and Thai Red Cross Society to increase the number of organ donors, too.

Meanwhile, Nephrology Society of Thailand president Prof Leena Ongajyooth said it would work with the office to train medical professionals in diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney disease.

Thailand has just 300 nephrologists and the North and Northeast were particularly poorly staffed - 40 hospitals there have no specialists.

The society commenced a screening and early-evaluation project called Seek to catch more patients at the outset of the disease.

Some 3,000 people in 10 provinces will participate in Seek in its first year.

Leena said this was Thailand's first project to detect early-stage disease and would provide information key to policy planning and prevention efforts.

The National Health Security Office announced it had approved an increase in the universal health-care payment from Bt1,899 to Bt2,100 a head.

It has also earmarked Bt40 million a year for hospitals to offer traditional treatments.

Pongphon Sarnsamak

 The Nation