A Model of Health Consumer Protection at Local Administrative Level: the Case of Health Products in Pathumthani Province - รูปแบบการคุ้มครองผู้บริโภคด้านผลิตภัณฑ์สุขภาพ ในองค์กรปกครองส่วนท้องถิ่น จังหวัดปทุมธานี

Abstract

The aims of this study were to study the relationship among producers, consumers, government
sector and local administration and to create a model of health consumer protection at local administrative
level using the qualitative method. The study was conducted in Pathumthani Province from May to
December 2013; and the methods were comprised of data collection, analysis with the proposal of an
innovative consumer protection model. Data were collected through focus group discussion among 51
key informants including 11 health personnel in community hospitals, 30 officers from local administration
(city municipality, town municipalities and sub-district municipalities) and 10 public health
volunteers. Data were also collected from in-depth interview of 15 key stakeholders including the
Provincial Chief Health Officer, the head of the Consumer Protection and Health Pharmacy section, the
head of Pharmacy Section of 3 community hospitals, Director of Public Health and Environment Division
of 8 municipalities, and 2 presidents of Public Health Volunteers in the province. With regard to
the relationship between producers and consumers, it was found that producers lacked of integrity and
used advertising media to persuaded consumers. Consumers lacked of products knowledge while government
sector, local administration and responsible local administrators were still confronting with the
problems in consumer protection and lacked of systematic work procedure which resulted in inefficient
performance, lacked of human resource planning and training, unresponsive personnel development in
the organizations, lacked of informative evaluation system, and lacked of motivation. Therefore, consumers
continue to submit complaints to the government to manage low quality products. With these
finding, the authors recommended that consumer protection model for health products should be developed
to cover producers, consumers, government sector, local administration and provincial public
health. Such model should work in a two-way communication approach, from the central to the local
and from the local to the central; and thus highest efficiency of work would be attained. In addition, the
authors recommended that multi-sectoral coordination and individual organizational development be
ensured. A model of consumer protection of health products was also proposed to include the following
factors: “P” is for Participation and Professionalism; “I” is for Innovative Thinking and Innovative
Organization; “K” is for KM (Knowledge Management) and KPI (Key Performance Indicator); “U” is
for Uniqueness and Unity; and “L” is for Learning Organization.
Key words: consumer protection, health products, local administration