Foreign medical practitioners: requirements for medical practice and postgraduate training in Thailand under ASEAN Economic Community liberalization in 2015
Article Category: Brief communication (Original)
Published Online: Jan 31, 2017
Page range: 777 - 782
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5372/1905-7415.0906.450
Keywords
© 2015 Kinzang Wangchuk, Natapol Supanatsetakul
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Background
The ten member states that currently comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to cooperate to become the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The first targets of the AEC are free flow of goods, services, investment, capital, and skilled labor. The eventual goal is “a single market and production base”. The ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for medical practitioners has been formulated to facilitate cooperation and the mobility of medical practitioners within the AEC.
Method
We reviewed the requirements of the Medical Council of Thailand (TMC) and the Thai Ministry of Public Health for medical practice and postgraduate training of foreign medical practitioners.
Result
In Thailand a foreign medical practitioner (FMP), holding a valid medical license from their country of graduation, will be recognized as a legal medical practitioner only after obtaining either a temporary or permanent medical licensure from TMC. To acquire a permanent Thai medical license, the FMP needs to register as a member of the TMC, have graduated from a TMC recognized medical school, but also having passed all 3 parts of the National Licensing Examination of Thailand. A Thai medical license is also required for clinical postgraduate medical training. Thai language proficiency is mandatory for registration. There is now only one formal international postgraduate medical training program in Thailand. Participants as observers may be exempted from some or all of these regulations.
Conclusion
The current status of medical licensure in the Kingdom of Thailand presents hurdles that may have to be surmounted.