- Economic situations or development
Due to the country’s economic development focusing on industrial growth requiring human resources and technology for rapid development, society’s lifestyle has become much more competitive. Work is rushed and difficult, and there are numerous differences between the economic situations of urban and rural societies. Families are drifting apart, causing health and hygiene problems and affecting demographic structure. The increase in numbers of the elderly and decrease in numbers of children are causinggaps in the relationships and lack of love and care from parents to children. Children and teen problems are therefore increasing, from drug abuse, adolescent sex, unwanted pregnancy to problems occurring from political, socioeconomic, information technology changes, and changes in demographic structure with a more than 10 per cent increase in the amount of elderly, which eventually affects health. Therefore, in the provision of this programme,thorough and well-rounded consideration of the health conditions of societyis required.
- Social and cultural situations or development
Thailand has suffered from the continuous shortage of doctors in rural areas; the distribution of doctors to rural areas has especially been a constant problem. Even though there have been many attempts to solve this with various measures, none have been successful. The economic and accessibility differences between the rural and urban areas are the main reasons for the lack of appeal of rural doctors. New graduates generally prefer to continue to study as specialists in medical schools in Bangkok or larger provinces, and prefer not to return to practice in rural areas. In addition, the increased number of elderly people requires an increase in elderly health care services. Therefore, medical courses should be renovated to steer students to correspond with the needs of the community,to have specialised knowledge and abilities in family and community health, with a passion for medical practice within the community that can help solve the shortage issues. The new renovation of medical education should focus principally on the production of family physicians, emphasising the treatment of patients and family as a whole, using a combination of medical, behavioural, and social sciences with training and research. Focus is centred on treatment based on the patient lifestyles, depending on the community as a source of knowledge and the creation of new ideas for health promotion, disease prevention, healing, and rehabilitation for people in the region |
Community Hospital
