Abstract:
This thesis is a study on the work of health cooperatives and discusses their relevant problems. At present, health cooperatives play an important role in society. They are founded by the community and are composed of two parts: a governing board and a working committee. The understanding of the objectives and their dessimination among people are necessary steps towards the establishment of this organization. However, most health cooperatives are now facing two major problems. This conclusion is obtained from the findings of research done in villages in the northern provinces of Thailand. A. Problems in operation 1. The objectives are not clear to most of the people. Statistics show that only sixty-nine percent know how to use the right kind of medicine for the treatment. Some even do not know the harm the same type of medicine can do to those who misuse of abuse it. There are still a lot of misunderstandings of how to administer certain drugs. The functions of health cooperative are not truly appreciated. 2. It is reported that the public health officers follow up the work once (60 percent of officers) or twice (40 percent) a month, apart from the supervision of the work in other areas. This results in the lack of continuous commitment and leads to the distribution of new types of medicine . 3. The working staffs incentives and morale are also affected. They have negative feelings towards the reward system which is considered of little value and certainly cannot highly motivate the ,. B. Problems in management 1. There is little cooperation among the committee themselves. Only 10 percent are involved in the making of an order for medicine and 70 percent in the decision making. This might be caused by the lack of responsibility, together with not enough understanding of each others role and the importance of group work. 2. The problems in accounting arise because an insufficient knowledge and a lack of understanding of the system which might be impractical for the present situation. Also, the committee responsible often takes little interest or even leaves the job undone. 3. The making of an order for medicine is done on average once every forty days. As a result, there is not enough medicine in the stock. This leads to an inefficient delivery of medicine, i.e. the list is often incomplete because of no definite planning in advance.