Questions/Answers

Although Phuket is one of the top tourist destinations in Thailand and equipped with economic prosperity and technology readiness, there are a number of the underprivileged, the elderly, the disabled residing in Phuket City Municipality with the shortage of medical equipment and supplies. As a result, Phuket City Municipality solved these problems by establishing the Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center. This Center has been operated through participatory method by empowering and strengthening cooperation among government, private sectors and volunteer groups. The collaboration aim to provide medical equipments and supplies, money, and holistic healthcare services to the underprivileged for free of charge.This results in better living conditions and being free from adverse illness.

The implementation result is aligned with Category 1 - Delivering inclusive and equitable services for all because Phuket City Municipality provides services to the underprivileged in Phuket City Municipality, who are suffering from shortage of medical equipments and supplies such as hospital beds, ventilator, oxygen tanks, wheelchairs, walking sticks and other materials. Phuket City Municipality provides services to all people regardless of gender, age or habitat. Phuket City Municipality has operated proactively based on citizen- centered approach, focusing on public participation, transparency in problem solving, and social responsibility.

The implementation of Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center conforms with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 3: Good health and Well-being which focuses on solving the problems related to basic needs, making all underprivileged access to medical equipments and receive holistic health care, and ensuring healthy livelihood and Well-being. In addition, the project also aligns with Goal 5: Gender Equality since the working group consists of all genders and all ages in which the majority are female. This significantly reflects the role of women in professional area. Moreover, the provision of medical services and equipments to the underprivileged is carried out regardless of nationality or race. Both Thai and foreign workers in Phuket City have equal access to medical services in order to decrease domestic and international inequality as stated in Goal 10. The aforementioned action will lead to the achievement of Goal 17- Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. The implementation creates a mechanism for participation of government, private sectors, and public by providing the citizens with the opportunities for problem solving and social responsibility in order to promote sustainable development.

Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has provided medical services, equipment and supplies to underprivileged for free of charge without disbursement from the government which leads to the project sustainability in economic dimension. The implementation of Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center achieved the expected success with an emphasis on creating participatory mechanism among government, private sector, and public. This mechanism result in the sustainability in social dimension because all sectors participate in problem solving regarding public services. Moreover, the operation is driven in a form of network in which the resources both unused and reusable materials are shared through developing the product as a health care innovations. This leads to environmental sustainability and reduction of global warming

Due to the gap between people and government sector i.e. limited access to public services, Phuket City Municipality ,therefore, has created a mechanism to provide government services, regardless of the limitation of governmental resources in accordance with the needs and problems in any given areas. The services will be provided to underprivileged patients, patients with disability and diseases, and the elderly in a nuclear family with low income. Currently, aging population is equivalent to 15.5% of total population and tends to increase due to the development of medical science. The Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center thus addresses people’s needs by creating a society of generosity and helping people in needs through collaboration between public, government and private sectors.

The Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center serves people of all ages and genders, regardless of nationality, race, or any other differences. Its key operational principle is citizen-centered approach.

The Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center is intended to help the elderly and the underprivileged in Phuket Municipality. The Center has contributed to the reduction of government expense in medical supplies and the improvement of quality of life for the underprivileged. In addition, working in a volunteering network has enhanced people’s awareness toward community problems and increased participation from local people to apply their knowledge and skills to help others. This enhances the social dimension of sustainable development.

The Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center is based on a cooperation among government, private, public sector and civil society to solve issues in their community. One of the issues in Phuket Municipality is aging population where there are 11,043 aging people, accounting for 15.5 % of the total population of 73,583 people in Phuket. Moreover, there are 225 underprivileged home-bound and bed-bound patients in Phuket Municipality. As a result, Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center is giving priority to the issues of aging society and the underprivileged. They have arranged volunteering activities, such as the so-called visiting for healing project to visit the elders ; and invention and reparation of equipment for patient projects like ‘Little Elephant’ to prevent frozen joints or “coffee-tube pillows” to prevent pressure sores. These are innovative products made from recycled materials donated by the community that volunteer mechanics in the community help to turn it into usable medical supplies. Moreover, there is a borrowing-returning medical equipment service, where the elderly and the disadvantaged can get access to the service, which will then cover to other types of patients in need of medical supplies regardless of their gender and age.

Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has found shortages of some types of medical equipment due to its high cost, such as, oxygen concentrator, oxygen tanks, hospital beds, etc. However, the Center has tackled the problems by arranging events and activities with the support from local people and turn the profits gaining from those activities to facilitate the purchase of those high-cost medical supplies for patients in need.

The goal of Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center is to provide the elderly and patients in Phuket City Municipality an opportunity to have access to services provided by the Center and to expensive medical equipment necessary for living. The Center has created a participation mechanism consisting of government, private sector, people and civil society, being a space for people to share their opinions and participate in the Center’s decision-making process. This allows people to participate in problem solving and improve their awareness toward social responsibility in order to promote sustainable development. The Phuket City Municipality therefore has created an innovation system that reduces red tape and overbearing bureaucracy to simplify procedures and provide a convenient channel for services in a timely manner. Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has also created inventions to help patients such as ‘Little Elephant’ to prevent frozen joints or coffee-tube pillows to prevent pressure sores. These are innovative products made from recycled materials donated by the community, which then has created a resource-sharing system of recyclable materials and in turn reduces waste and environmental problems. This can be considered as effective consumption of resources in terms of the giver and receiver.

Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center is an innovative governmental service provider which has been incorporated by Phuket City Municipality in order to tackle any given problems and difficulties of local people. The system is based on resource-sharing, networking, awareness enhancement and effective teamwork, improving public trust in the government to act as a provider for their better quality of life.

Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center is considered as a model for other administrative organizations in Phuket Province and nearby provinces such as Wichit Subdistrict Municipality, Ratsada Subdistrict Municipality, Chalong Subdistrict Municipality, and Vachira Phuket Hospital. There are other organizations and parties who have visited the Center to study and learn about its management system. The Center also shares knowledge about healthcare innovation to volunteers and teenagers in order to maintain the project sustainability and further develop the innovations.

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Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has financial cash flow where it can effectively obtain profits from various activities to arrange the events participated by the government, private sectors, people and civil society. For instance, they arranged a buy-and-sell used stuff event , opening up for donation of good-looking/quality second-hand items to be sold and auctioned at the walking street in the Old Phuket Town in order to turn profits to the further purchase of medical equipment. This activity, by including local people’s participation, doesn’t only make them happy but also allow them to be an important part in providing medical equipment for the underprivileged, which boosts their awareness to solve social issues and in turn maintains sustainable development.

Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has arranged a committee by selecting the qualified members from government officials and volunteering networks. The Center encourages public participation, raises the awareness towards volunteering ,and creates the network of youth volunteering through activities like fundraising events to purchase medical supplies for treating needy patients.

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There was an internal performance evaluation in Phuket City Municipality by collecting data according to the performance indicators overseen by a project auditing committee in order to ensure the achievement of determined objectives. Moreover, there was an external audit conducted by The Department of Social Development and Welfare.

Regarding the internal performance evaluation, the applicable indicators are the number of underprivileged people that have been helped, the number of public participation networks, and the variety of activities arranged by the Center. The applicable indicators of the Department of Social Development and Welfare are in accordance with the criteria for organizations with outstanding social activities in preventing and solving social problems, welfare arrangements for the target group, being accepted or recognized by users and other agencies, possessing empirical activity as a model for further implementation by other agencies for at least three continuing years.

The evaluation has demonstrated that all of the underprivileged people ,in need of medical equipment, have got a better quality of life. This is due to the fact that the Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center provides the medical assistance without any strings attached and also provides holistic health care that improves mental health of both patients and their relatives. Given that the underprivileged is able to take care of themselves, they can start to earn a living to support themselves and their family. However, there are challenges faced by public sector in providing assistance to the society due to an increase in a nuclear family, resulting in an increasing number of the elderly, the disabled and the underprivileged. Thus, to solve the problem, the government encourages public participation to create trust among relevant parties where any services provided by the government sector would be support by local people.

The operation of the Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center includes members from both the public and private sectors. In the context of private sector, networks of volunteers, including children, youth, working-age people and the elderly in all genders equally cooperate. In the government sector, the cooperation among officials within Phuket City Municipality is crucial for providing and covering a number of services for local people in order that they would have a better life. The Center is thus committed to providing excellent and equal access to the services .

Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has created a committee to include government, private sector and the public in solving the problem of underprivileged people in need of equipment and supplies. The center initially started with accepting donations of unused items. However, due to the shortages of medical equipment, the committee started to arrange fundraising events, opening up for donation of good-looking/quality second-hand items to be sold and auctioned at the walking street in the Old Phuket Town in order to turn profits to the further purchase of medical equipment for people in need. There is also a press release to publicize the information about the activities of Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center in order to promote transparency and boost public trust towards the Center.

The operation of Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center has demonstrated that the government needs cooperation and participation from other sectors to solve any public issues. And sustainability is only created when every party works toward the issues together. From the evaluation of Phuket Happiness Social City and Sharing Center, it could successfully reduce social inequality and provide more access of health care system to the underprivileged patients thanks to the emphasis on people’s needs. The Center aims at expanding their services to other areas that could improve quality of life and people’s well-being in accordance with the sustainable development guidelines. Suggestions: