TROUBLED REGION / MEDICAL STAFF SHORTAGE

Doctor grads refuse South assignmentsLone volunteer as others buy way out

APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL

A group of newly graduated doctors yesterday rejected the Public Health Ministry's offer of work at hospitals in the three southernmost provinces, aggravating a medical- staff shortage in the violence-plagued region.

A total of 34 doctors told public health permanent secretary Prat Boonyawongwirote that they did not want to work in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat where positions for new doctors has yet to be filled.

"I would have definitely gone to work in that part of the South if the situation was not so bad," said Yingyong Termsittisakul, 25, a graduate doctor from Chiang Mai University.

His family also believes it is too risky now for him to accept the offer because militants were attacking residents and officials on a daily basis, he said.

Instead, the young doctor decided to wait for a vacancy at Samut Prakan hospital, which is near his home.

About 1,500 new doctors and dentists were supposed to register with the ministry this year for three-year assignments to state hospitals in the provinces.

New graduates are randomly chosen to serve at rural hospitals, which have a different quota for new doctors each year.

This year the hospitals in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala have a quota of 46 doctors and 23 dentists. But only 29 doctors and 18 dentists have so far volunteered to work in the restive border region. Most of them happen to be southern residents who want to live close to their families.

Some other graduate doctors, assigned to fill positions outside the quota, have also declined to go.

Mongkol Rattanakosikit, a graduate doctor from Rangsit University, said culture and language differences in the deep South could be barriers for doctors from different backgrounds wanting to create a good impression.

"The three southern border provinces should be the working place of doctors native to the South, not doctors from other provinces like me," he said.

Thanya Leelasiriwong, a psychiatrist from Ramathibodi hospital, said since she was planning to continue her studies, her family had decided to make the 400,000 baht repayment the government requires so that she did not have to work in the South for the required three years.
Under ministry regulations, repaying the 400,000 baht frees a graduate from all obligations and they can then choose where they work.

Dr Prat yesterday tried to convince the 34 graduates to change their minds. He even offered to arrange a free trip for them to observe the situation in the South so that they could see how badly southern residents need doctors and medical help.

Doctors working in any of the southern border provinces will receive special privileges from the ministry, he said.

For example, they could ask for a transfer to a new hospital after one year and get permission to further their studies in a specialised field after working in the area for only two years, he said.
While the 34 were refusing to work in the southern border provinces, 27-year-old graduate doctor Pongsathorn Tassawiwat chose to opt out of an offered internship at Khon Kaen hospital, volunteering to work in the troubled region.

The Naraesuan University graduate said he decided he wanted to work in the South when he was still a second-year university student. "I have been taught to treat sick patients so I have no right to fuss. I know that people in the South badly need doctors," he said.

Public health deputy permanent secretary Suwat Tienthong said he was considering sending Dr Pongsathorn to Narathiwat hospital or Betong hospital in Yala.

Bangkok Post
Tuesday April 03, 2007