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The Ministry of Health is responsible for public health services. More than 800 hospitals (rong payabaan) and over 7000 health centers (anamai) are centrally subordinated to it.
In the large cities, especially in Bangkok, there are public hospitals and several private hospitals as well. These medical institutes are well equipped with staff and technical appliances. It appears still more problematic for the population on the countryside (about 80 % Thais live in rural areas), even though many improvements took place in the last years. The number of rural hospitals increased by 200 to 848 in the eighties and the number of health centers doubled and reached to 7000.
Public hospital in Chumphon
Health centers play an important role in rural medical care. They can be a simple first aid station in a village, a center for medical treatment with medical staff (nurses) that is frequented by a doctor in certain periods, or even a small hospital with at least 10 beds and with a doctor that offers in-patient treatment. Specific measures in the areas of prevention, health care lessons at school and healthy diet, organized by the health centers and other institutions show first success: the number of people died of lung infection, tuberculosis or deficiency symptoms have dropped significantly.
Public Health Center near Krabi
The average life expectancy for men is 73 years, for women 77 years. The average years in good health are 66.7. For comparison: UK 81 years, 69.5 years in good health. USA 79 years, 67.2 years in good health. Canada 81.5 years, 70 years in good health. Australia 81.8 years, 69.5 years in good health. Sweden 81.7 years, 69.7 years in good health. Japan 83.2 years, 73.4 years in good health.
The campaigns for sex education regarding family planning were successful as well: 33 babies per 1000 inhabitants were born in 1980, in 2005 only 15 babies. Accordingly, the percentage of people below 15 years in the total population decreased from 45,2 % in 1970 to 29 % in 2007.
Regarding the future, the main tasks of the public health services are improvement of sanitary conditions (water, waste water) in the city and in the countryside and measurements to fight against malaria.
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