The Medical Council has set up a national committee to help resolve the dispute over the controversial Medical Malpractice Victim Protection bill, council's president Dr Somsak Lohlekha said yesterday.
The move came after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva denied a request from the Network for People's Medical Protection to establish an assembly of medical workers to overcome differences regarding the proposed bill.
"This national committee will find out the best resolution for the dispute before submitting it to the Public Health Ministry's reconciliation subcommittee for public health services," Somsak said.
The national committee of over 70 will comprise personnel from medical and health care organisations including: 18 medical workers from 18 medical schools; six from the Medical Council; five from the Medical Association of Thailand; and five from military medical agencies.
There will be 20 physicians from 20 public health division areas: one from the Private Hospital Association; five from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's hospitals; and 10 from the federation of doctors at Central Hospital and the General Hospital, Nursing school.
Finally, there will be five members from the Medical and Health Professional Association, the Network for People's Medical Protection, and one from the Association of Clinical Physicians.
As the PM has promised not to withdraw the draft bill from the ongoing legislative process, Somsak said he believed that if it takes effect, there will be many complaints and compensation demands of over Bt 10 billion.
The Thai NGO 'Coalition on Aids' yesterday handed an open letter to the Public Health Ministry to pressure a group of medical workers who oppose the Medical Malpractice Victim Protection draft bill. It asks that they do not take any seat on the no fault compensation committee to be set up by this bill, in a bid to avoid future conflict of interest issues.
Also health activists supporting the draft bill should not be a part of this committee, said Kanjana Talangkij, who led a group of 25 HIV/Aids activists.
The coalition also called for the Public Health Ministry to urgently make its officials understand the draft bill for Medical Malpractice Victim Protection, while those medical workers who are against the draft bill should cease their involvement.
It said the government should take note that PM Abhisit Vejjajiva had promised a group of patients affected by medical errors that he would not drop the Medical Malpractice Victims Protection Bill from the ongoing legislative process, and he would set up a nationallevel committee to improve the draft law before submitting it to Parliament.
Public Health Ministry's spokesperson Dr Suphan Srithamma, who chaired the ministry's reconciliation subcommittee, said he had coordinated with stakeholders under the draft bill, and found there was positive resolution on the conflict among those who supported and those against the draft bill.
"So far no one had withdrawn from the ministry's committee to resolve disputes over the controversial bill," he said.
He added that the ministry is now waiting for the stakeholders - including a group of medical workers who oppose the bill and a civic group who support the bill - to send names of their representatives who will sit on the ministry's reconciliation subcommittee for public health services.
"We will call the first meeting of the subcommittee after we have received the names of stake holders, but we do not yet know when that will be," the Public Health Ministry's spokesperson said.