United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Ubonratchathani is an North-eastern province of Thailand with its border next to Laos and Cambodia. The area is about 16,613 Km². The population is 1,795,453 people which is the 3rd of Thailand. It consists of 25 districts, 216 sub-districts Most people live in rural area and they are poor that their incomes are 1,714 $ per year.
Health Service Caravan was the project which set up since 2006 from many problems. Each year Ubonratchathani Provincial hospital need amount of blood about 50,000 units. In contrast, the blood bank and The Ubonratchathani Red Cross that organizations supported blood for Ubonratchathani hospital could get donating blood about 35,000 units. Moreover, the numbers of donating blood persons were very small which were 63,277 people or 5.4%. A main obstacle came from a distance of travel and the costs for travelling. The result was that it was not enough to serve the patients in the hospital, the service quality was decreased and some patients died. The next problem, more people are poor so they do not have enough money to go to the hospital. These problems were verified by Ubonratchathani Governor and the head of Ubonratchathani Public Health Service Office. So, Ubonratchathani Health Service Caravan was set up since 2006. The caravan included of doctors, dentists, nurses, and health officers. There were 3 kinds of service: health checking unit, dental unit, and blood donating unit.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
There were many key benefits resulting from the Ubonratchathani Health Service Caravan. First of all there were integration among all sections in province such as government service, local government, private sector, and citizens. Secondly, the new innovation was occurred which was “Hand over and approach health service” because poor people in rural area could get health service. Now this innovation were paid attention by other province and it was the best practice of the Ministry of public health. Lastly, people could prevent and take care of their health. In the past, poor people got sick from bad health habits. At present, this caravan is the best practice of the Ministry of Public Health and expanded to other province as a role model

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
In the past, there were 2 main problems of health service occurred in Ubonratchathani . Firstly, the data from Ubonratchathani hospital found that blood 50,000 units were needed to serve patients in the hospital but there were not enough in blood bank. Secondly, Poor people who lived in rural area could not approach health service from the city hospital. Ubonratchathani Governor and the Head of Ubonratchathani Public Health Service Office were aware for these problem. So the “Participation mechanism”, which came from all parts of province: government sector, local government, private sector, and citizens. Participation mechanism were used to solve these problems and was used to implement. There were three stakeholders from this caravan. Firstly, citizen could get better health service because caravan included of doctors, dentists, nurses, and health officers, health checking unit, dental unit, and blood donating unit which serve them at their home. They could get many services from the caravan such as health checking, dental checking, fill teeth, physical therapy. The patients who needed blood to cure the disease were also stakeholder from this caravan because there was blood donating unit which all equipments were packed in the truck and could move to everywhere. So it was very convenient for people who want to donate blood and could save cost for travelling to the hospital. From this point, it increases the numbers of donating blood people. Lastly, the government could save budget for maintaining citizens from many diseases such as heart trouble, obesity, diabetes, AIDS, etc. The staff of this caravan gave advises to people for preventing the diseases, how to have good habits, how to exercise. It was the policy “Preventing better than curing”.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
There were 4 strategies which were used in this caravan. Promoting participation was the first strategy because this caravan served 881,000 people per year so it would have good planning, good staffs, good equipments, and good services. When formulating the policy, we had the representative from all part in our province hold a meeting for create policy. Secondly, there was integration among all sectors. For example, we used temples or school to be the places where the caravan was took place. The reason for using temples and schools was that both of them were the center of each community and the heart center of Buddhism. The local government had the duty for promoting health checking program to public. There were some health volunteers from each community and the heart center of Buddhism. The local government had the duty for promoting health checking program to public. There were some health volunteers from each community filter patients such as patients’ history, measure blood pressure. Secondly, There was standard health checking. There was clear of the structure of health checking staffs. The staffs a good training. Equipments had quality. The third strategy was integration among the organizations of the Ministry of Public Health by focusing on people who got service. They would get standard service. The fourth strategy was converting all people. Caravan moved to every sub-districts (2 times a year). Moreover, we had good promotion, so everyone knew the time table. In conclusion, all strategies made the caravan success. The number of people came to get service increased every year. There were 881,000 people came to get service in 2008. There were 4 objectives of this project. Firstly, people were awareness with their health and knew their illness. As a result, they would change their health habit and avoided any risk behaviors. Secondly, the community knew their health data so people used this data for health planning. Thirdly, people in rural area could approach health service. Lastly, the number of blood was enough for the patients and could resource the future.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
In 2005, Ubonratchathani Health Service Caravan was set up. At first, there was only health service checking and we found that most people did not know how to prevent and take care themselves. There were 487,320 people came to get service. In 2006 there were 824,907 people came to get service. In 2007 there were 868,528 people came to get service. In 2008 the data found that people who live in rural area had problem with dental. The rate of cavity was 3.2 per person and 22% of them inflamed the gum ridge. These people need to be cure by the dentists. At last, there was integration in 3 mobile units: Health checking unit, Dental unit, and donated blood unit. There were 881,852 people came to get service.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main obstacle of this caravan was there were a lot of people came to get health service. So, they waited for a long time. This problem was solved by using “people participation”. That was each community would selected public health service volunteers. These volunteers were trained by Ubonratchathani Health Office, so they could check basic health such as measuring blood pressure, classifying illness group, and blood testing, etc.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Ubonratchathani Health Service Caravan was supported budget from the National Health Security office which was the organization under the Ministry of Public Health

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The sustainable of this caravan would consist of many factors. Firstly, health checking team would be trained in order to have good quality. Secondly, all equipments would have standard. Thirdly, there was integration among all sectors of the province. Lastly, people would have awareness of good point of participation. They were proud to be one part the caravan. Moreover, they could take care themselves, their family and their community. Nowadays, this caravan is the best practice of the Ministry of Public Health.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
5. The impact of the initiative was many people, especially poor people could approach health service. They could saved cost from travel to the city hospital. The lesson learned was “changing the crisis to be the chance” because “much giving, much happily”. People who donated blood felt happy when their blood could save many lives. The health service volunteers were also happy to help health officers. Next, they could take care their family, their community. Lastly, caravan moved to rural area which made the officers knew the real problems and meet the needs of people. These data could use to plan the development of the caravan.


Institution Name:		Ubonratchathani Province
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Chuan Srinunporn
Title:		Governor of Ubonratchathani Province
Telephone/ Fax:		+ (66) 4 525 4693
Institution's / Project's Website:		+ (66) 4 524 4683
E-mail:		pupe_igp@hotmail.com
Address:		Provincial Hall, Upparath Road
Postal Code:		34000
City:		Muang
State/Province:		Ubonratchathani
Country:		Thailand

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information