Twenty-Year National Strategic Plan for Public Health (B.E. 2561-2580)

Abstract

Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) developed the twenty-year national strategic plan for public health B.E. 2561-2580 (2018-2037) to align with the twenty-year national strategy of the govern­ment. This strategic plan has been conducted by using the processes of the office of the public sector development commission with the involving of stakeholders. This processes consist of (1) strategic anal­ysis, (2) strategic direction and setting, (3) strategic formulation and (4) strategic implementation. The aim of the national strategic plan is to achieve the goal of “healthier people, happier health care workers, and sustainable health system”; and the vision is “a key health agency that synergizes public and social engagement for the health and well-being of Thai people”. This strategic plan also set up the core values including mastery, originality, people centered and humility. It is primarily built up for 4 strategies of excellence including: (1) promotion, prevention and protection excellence; (2) service excellence; (3) people excellence; and (4) governance excellence. These four strategies consist of 15 workplans and 40 projects, 55 KPIs, with respective goals and measures to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and cost effectiveness under limited funding and resources. This national strategic plan is divided into four phases: phase 1: system reform, phase 2: system strengthening efforts, phase 3: moving toward sustainability, and phase 4: becoming one of the top three countries in Asia with best health care system. Additionally, the guidelines were also developed to create understanding and educate operational staff at all level about the strategies and key performance indicators (KPIs) so that all these strategies are successfully trans­lated into action. Due to the time constraint, this national strategic plan for public health has some weak points such as limited engagement of private stakeholders and others. Apart from this, a timely effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) program should also be applied to streamline the operation procedures.