Transitioning an Autonomous University Hospital to a Special System Service Agency through Neoliberalism

Abstract

The study entitled “Transitioning an Autonomous University Hospital to a Special System Service Agency through Neoliberalism” aims to investigate the operations and effects of transitioning an autonomous of Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital in two perspectives between social democracy and neoliberalism for finding management equilibrium of public hospitals through neoliberal concept of maintaining social welfare and competition. Qualitative research was done with data collected by in-depth interviews. Samples were provided by administrators and staff from Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital (SiPH), Bangkok, operated by the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital of Mahidol University. The results were that transitioning from an autonomous university hospital to a special system service agency under neoliberal was managed by SiPH, a university hospital with a private management model. It is considered that a service as part of falls into a health category  as a product at a certain level with income reintroduced into distribution. The concept of being a recipient and giver resolves the loss problem of public hospitals management on self-sustainment. In this way, public hospitals may treat indigent patients, resolving disparities in access to health service as well as the brain drain of medical personnel from public to private hospitals.