Thailand's Rural Doctor Movement: Their Contributions and Challenges

Abstract

Thailand's Rural Doctor Movement (RDM) is a “civic movement” organized by rural doctors who are officials in the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). RDM's political consciousness and ideologies for social justice were cultivated by their exposures to student activism and repression in October 1973 and 1976 and fostered by the exposure to poverty and ill-health in rural communities while doing compulsory medical service in rural hospitals in the 1970s–1980s, following graduation from medical school. This perspective highlights two major contributions by RDM. First, it fought against the 1998 Drug Scandal and 2009 potential corruption in the MOPH through whistle-blowing role. Second, RDM advocated for legislation from various statutory bodies that support and fill the gap of MOPH. These bodies include the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, the National Health Security Office, and the National Health Commission Office. The legal mandates of these statutory bodies create conflicts with tobacco, alcohol and beverage industries, pharmaceutical industries and MOPH, which led to consistent efforts to roll back the influence of these para-statal health organizations formed and led by RDM advocates. RDM's role as whistle-blowers and advocates for the legislation of statutory bodies provides key lessons for practitioners and policymakers in developing countries. However, they need to adapt to their own policy contexts and policy actors and be agile to grasp the window of opportunity.