Project News Vol.8（English）

In September 2023, JICA QHCF conducted a mutual site visit between Thailand and Lao. It was a collaborative activity together with the National Health Security Office (NHSO) in Thailand and the Partnership Project for Global Health and Universal Health Coverage (GLO+UHC Project), JICA Thailand. The counterparts of QHCF project from Ministry of Health (MOH) and 4 southern provinces participated in this activity.
In Champasak Provincial Health Office (PHO), both of Thai and Lao participants had a presentation and comments for better understanding on the quality of healthcare services and management of health insurance funds between Laos and Thailand.
All participants visited Sirindhorn Hospital in Ubon Ratchathani Provincial and had the lecture on the topic of “Border Health”. This topic is important since there are many patients from Lao who receive the treatment from hospitals in Ubon Ratchathani.
There were lectures regarding “Thailand Health System”, “Thailand Health Care System”, and “Quality of Care System in Sappasitthipasong Hospital”. The participants also visited Sri kai Health Center and Dong Hong Hae Health Promoting Hospital and exchanged their knowledge on the quality system of public health service.
After five days of the mutual site visit, the participants gained new knowledge and had more close relationships with NHSO and PHO in Ubon Ratchathani. In the future, the QHCF Project plans to have trainings in Thailand in collaboration with NHSO and PHO for improving the quality of healthcare and financial management.

A short-term expert on patient safety was deployed for three months from October to December. The expert visited provincial hospitals on the project site and provided training for provincial and district staff that was aimed at hospital staff to conduct feasible activities for patient safety.
The expert also introduced the monitoring patient safety system and reporting accidents in healthcare, the trainee also had a chance to learn with cases. After the training, the staff understood more about the method of providing good healthcare services and about Patient Safety.

In line with the revised method of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) activities, developing and implementing quality improvement plans for the next cycle at each provincial hospital was supported.
In conjunction with the workshop on patient safety activities, the staff of the Department of Healthcare and Rehabilitation (DHR), MoH and the four provinces observed CQI activities at Champasak provincial hospital and exchanged opinions.

The provincial team (provincial health office and provincial hospital) conducted training on the introduction of CQI activities in district hospitals. Methods of monitoring CQI activities in district hospitals were discussed with the provincial team.

Discussions were held with the Department of Planning and Finance (DOPF), MoH on the plan for training on hospital accounting software (Ban Chi Lao) for accountants of district health offices and district hospitals.
The part on property management and preparation of expenditure plans for each hospital was decided to be included in the Ban Chi Lao training that had been conducted so far, and the implementation plan and content of the training were prepared jointly with DOPF staff.

In collaboration with the JICA Sustainable Development and Quality Assurance System for Human Resources for Health (DQHP) project, the project coordinated with DHR and the Healthcare Professional Bureau (HPB) on the content and implementation method of the survey on the licensing and registration status. The results will be collected, and the survey findings will be compiled and shared with all relevant sections.