Abstract
According to Sections 25(5) and 27(3) of the National Health Act B.E. 2550 (2007), the National
Health Commission is authorized to establish guidelines and procedures for monitoring and evaluating the
national health system. Furthermore, the National Health Commission Office is tasked with surveying,
studying, and analyzing various data and the overall situation of the health system in order to produce
reports or to facilitate the implementation of the Act. This research aimed to develop a set of indicators
for monitoring consumer protection on health to be used for tracking, evaluating, and reporting on the
status of Thailand's health system regarding consumer protection in a systematic and continuous manner
using the 3rd National Health System Charter B.E. 2565 (2022) as the reference framework. The selected
indicators in this study were designed to measure consumers’ health protection on five dimensions: laws
and enforcement, product and service surveillance, compensation for damages, consumer empowerment,
and information databases for warning. The findings revealed that Thailand's consumer protection laws
had been revised to be more up-to-date and had been enforced. However, the impact of these revisions
on consumers should be further monitored. There was still a number of substandard health products on
the market, hence could be able to pose some risks to consumers. Related organizations had systems in
place for monitoring and receiving complaints about health products and services, but the standards of
these organization were not consistent among each other. Regarding compensation for damages, there
was still a lack of a direct compensation fund for damages resulting from the consumption of health
products and services. Therefore victims had to resort to legal action to seek compensation by their own.
Additionally, there was a limited number of consumer organizations at the provincial level. Moreover,
warning information databases were found not yet proactive. Therefore, inter-organization coordination
should be improved to ensure timely actions. Furthermore, as this is the first time developing and defining
indicators for monitoring the status of Thailand's health system in terms of consumer protection by
referencing the National Health System Charter, targets of some indicators still need to be developed. In
addition, data collection according to these indicators should be systematized further. The indicators
should also be continuously reviewed to ensure their suitability and alignment with changing contexts or
situations.
