The conference, organised by the Public Health Association of Thailand (PHAT) is being held at Phuket Rajabhat University under the theme “Step into the New Normal in Primary Health Care”. The conference began on Saturday (Sept 20) and concludes today (Sept 22)
Joining the seminar yesterday were Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew, Phuket Public Health Office (PPHO) Chief Thanit Sermkaew along with former Phuket MP Raywat Areerob who now serves as Assistant of the Secretary to the Minister of Public Health.
The conference is focusing on issues concerning medical personnel’s capabilities to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Dr Yongyot explained yesterday that the conference specifically aims “to be a place where medical staff can share their opinions and experiences in order to update their knowledge to respond to the changes in the future and perform their work under the ministry’s measures, which are accepted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and foreign countries”.
The development of ‘village health volunteers’ to become ‘home doctors’, that is making ‘house calls’, was also raised at the seminar yesterday, with the hope of creating quality public health networks, Dr Yongyot noted.
The conference features more than 130 research presentations and includes a ‘Routine to Research (R2R) research contest’ and will see awards presented to medical workers for their outstanding work during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
The Phuket Tour Guide Association together with other local tourism business associations have set up booths selling tour packages to attendees at the conference, and yesterday provided a free city tour for 400 medical workers.
Phuket Tour Guide Association President Wirintra Paphakityotsaphat explained that the free city tour was created especially for the seminar attendants “in order to promote our beautiful province, as the tour will take them to Wat Chalong, Phuket Old Town, a cashew nut factory and a pearl factory”, she said.