Abstract
The devolution of sub- district health promotion hospital to provincial administrative organization effect to the roles of provincial public health office and district public health office. This study aimed to investigate the roles of provincial public health office and district public health office after devolution of sub- district health promotion hospital to provincial administrative organization and synthesize policy suggestions. Mixed methods were used. The Qualitative data were gathered using semi-structured interviews and focus group. The participants, from 8 provinces representative of each region, involved the experts, administrators of Ministry of Public Health, policy makers, chiefs of provincial public health office, district public health executives, district chiefs, and district public health officers. The quantitative data were collected using questionnaire. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Policy suggestions were synthesized from the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, and connoisseurship. The findings showed that the roles of both offices were the same as before with some new operations in order to solve the problems consequence the devolution: 1) transition phase; the provincial public health office operated as the prior roles and followed Primary Health System Act, 2019, and been the preceptor of district public health office for preparing the readiness and promoting the officers’ competencies of district public health offices to be the academic offices; however. The roles of district public health office should be modified by the ministerial regulations. 2) devolution complete phase; the provincial public health office operated as the prior roles with some modifies roles according to the modified roles of the district public health office. These modified roles involved upgrading the district public health office to be the academic office and enhancing the competency of officers to be the consultants and the evidence-based information providers, being regulators to evaluate the quality of primary care services of all sectors in the area of their district, and improving health consumer protection system.
