Abstract
Public health decentralization has been an item on the national agenda in compliance with the 1997 Constitution of Thailand. In principle, the central administration of the Ministry of Public Health was responsible for decentralizing its part of public health programs and resources to local administrative organizations according to the Decentralization Plan for Local Administration. The Ministry of Public Health established the Office for Supporting Public Health Decentralization so that it could act as a policy coordinator and a preparation facilitator for transferring public health programs and activities to local administrative organizations. In 2007, the Ministry of Public Health initiated a pilot project to transfer 22
health centers to 19 local administrative organizations in 16 provinces. The individual experiences of this project indicate that community participation was necessary. Other important factors on part of local administrative organizations were their supplementary budgets for public health activities and investment, shortened command-control line, clearer pathway of health personnel positions and leadership of
community development. Good relationship between health centers and local administrative organizations were undeniably helpful for the transferring processes. Lessons learned from this project were if the transferring would carry out for more health centers, communication of the transfer vision, processes, advantages, precaution and possible contingencies and solutions should be thoroughly made from policy
to implementation level. Human resources for transferred public health programs must be carefully planned. Administrative and Consultative Office at provincial level should be established to help solve out administrative inquiries and provide technical consultation from the starting point to monitoring and continuous evaluations. Then, the lessons learned and applications from local levels would help support the better development.
