Project News

On August 10, an online meeting was held with the 8 pilot sites (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chonburi, Nonthaburi, Surat Thani, and Phuket provinces) and 2 potential settings (Khuntan Hospital and Mettapracharak Hospital in Chiang Rai and Nakhon Pathom).

Previously, the project had been conducting regular monitoring visits at pilot sites and potential settings to review progress of activities and identify issues. However, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand, we had to cancel most of the monitoring visits for the past year and a half. Therefore, we decided to hold this online meeting in order to find out the current situation and issues at each pilot site and potential setting as well as to enable information sharing among them.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Prasitchai Mangjit, who is the technical leader for Intermediate Care provision in Saraburi Province, which is the technical support site of S-TOP, and plays a central role in the promotion of Intermediate Care at the Thai Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). The meeting was held with a total of 55 participants, including pre-selected representatives from each pilot site and potential setting, the main coordinators from MOPH who serve as the contact point for them, and the project team members, including Japanese experts and project assistants.

Online Zoom meeting screenshot

In the meeting, each team from the pilot site and potential setting made a presentation on 1) the current situation, 2) good practices, and 3) challenges in implementation of the activities. Dr. Prasitchai and the project team then commented on the presentations. The information on future plans and activities of S-TOP were also shared.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been difficult to carry out normal operations, and thus each team reported on the various ways in which they are providing essential care with maximum infection prevention measures.

The presentation from Nakhon Ratchasima

The presentation from Phuket

During this meeting, there was insufficient time for discussion due to the time required for presentations by all the teams. However, through this meeting, the project was able to ascertain the situation in the field as well as the progress of activities. At the same time, all pilot sites and potential settings were able to share information with others.

As a project, we will continue to use similar online meetings to monitor project activities, as well as to provide the opportunities for information sharing and for problem-solving discussions among the project teams, all sites and potential settings.