Bulletin

Issue: July 2005

News

Thais focus on Aussie health care

La Trobe University recently had a major role in an Australian study tour by 30 high ranking Thai health officials.

The delegation consisted of directors and senior staff of the Thai National Health Security Office, hospital directors and chief medical officers from the Ministry of Public Health and academics from Chulalongkorn University.

They visited Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney to learn about the Australian health care system under the auspices of the Australian Health Insurance Commission.

La Trobe University senior lecturer in Public Health, Dr Ken Harvey, was invited to Thailand earlier this year to talk about Australian pharmaceutical policy at an international conference on cost containment in national health insurance systems.

He said his talk stimulated interest among Thai officials to learn more about the Australian health care system, resulting in the tour.

Dr Harvey said all health insurance systems are faced with selecting the most cost-effective health care from a proliferation of expensive new drugs and procedures and the need to reconcile these with finite budgets. ‘Thailand has recently instituted universal health insurance coverage and is particularly interested in Australian cost containment experience,’ he added.

The study tour began at La Trobe where Dean of Health Sciences, Professor Stephen Duckett, provided an introduction to the Australian health care system and an overview of financing. Dr Harvey then spoke on Australian medicinal drug policy and investigative medicine.

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