A group of rural doctors wants COVID medications to be available for purchase by state hospitals

The group hailed the ministry’s decision to allow state businesses, private clinics, and hospitals run by medical institutions to independently purchase Covid medication in a Facebook post on Monday. Chualongkorn University instructor in popular science Jessada Denduangboripant has been advocating for full liberalization of Covid medications on his Facebook page. The society was making reference to a letter that Thongchai Kirattihatthayakorn, acting permanent secretary for public health, had issued to the ministry of higher education, science, research, and innovation as well as the department supporting health services on July 27. The group argued that since Covid medications may be purchased independently by private hospitals and clinics, the Public Health Ministry’s hospitals should also benefit from the liberalization. While the permanent secretary of higher education is in charge of medical schools at universities, the department is in control of private hospitals and clinics.

As a result, starting on September 1, the Public Health Ministry will permit private hospitals, clinics, and medical schools to purchase antiviral Covid medications on their own.
“Releasing the medication [from the Public Health Ministry’s oversight] was the appropriate thing to do.” Why should hospitals rely on the Government Pharmaceutical Organization’s monopoly? The group wrote in the post that “this action will unquestionably put an end to the condition of inadequate medicine. “However, the question of whether hospitals run by the Public Health Ministry will be permitted to purchase Covid medication on their own is still unclear. Or would the restriction that they can only purchase the medicine from the GPO still apply to them? According to the letter, Thailand has reached the post-pandemic stage of managing COVID-19, and the administration is getting ready to declare the illness an endemic. It claimed that complete liberalization would put an end to the problematic logistics management and monopolistic medicine supply chain of the GPO. He claimed that while a course of Molnupiravir could be purchased in a nearby country for around 300 baht, medicine availability in Thailand was insufficient. He claimed that his family members had to purchase Covid online since doctors would not prescribe it to them. Similar concerns about hospitals not having enough supplies of antiviral medications to treat all patients in vulnerable categories who were given only generic medicine to relieve symptoms have been made on Facebook. On Monday, the Rural Doctors Society urged the Public Health Ministry to free public hospitals from the need to rely on “problematic” allocations from a state company and allow them to purchase Covid-19 medication on their own.