I'm going to take a chance on assuming that this article was not an April Fool's Day joke. Who knew that a managing director of the Eleven Media Group was a doctor.

Interesting aspect of democracy at play here. Responsible government demands transparency so a white paper or concept note published earlier might have made it clear exactly why a public health department was being calved. Who can blame the media for questioning it. That's one of its roles.

I hear that the Ministry has been split.

The government would need to double the national health budget every year for the next few years before people would start to be healthier because of increased spending.

Jamie

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Government criticised over plan to restructure Health Department
no byline
Eleven
Wednesday, 01 April 2015 03:19

The Myanmar government has been criticised for its plan to split the Department of Health into the Department of Public Health and the Department of Medical Care at the start of the upcoming fiscal year.

Critics say there is not enough time to implement these changes before the next election and they the restructuring will be too costly.

The Department of Public Health will be set up with more than 400 officers and more than 1,500 staff. The organisation will include one director-general, three deputy directors-general (disease control, public health, administration/finance), 15 directors, 44 deputy directors, 102 assistant directors and 249 staff officers.

The Department of Medical Care will be set up with more than 300 officers and more than 1,600 staff. It will include one director-general, two deputy directors-general (medical care, administration/finance), three supervisors at central hospitals (Yangon, Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay), 14 directors and 34 deputy directors.

“Only nine months are left before the end of the presidential term. It is necessary during this time to be careful in the formation of new departments. Instead of conserving the budget of the Ministry [of Health], creating new departments will require more spending. It is not easy for such complicated matters to be dealt with in a short time. If there is a plan, the new government should do it. It is really not a small matter. It will take time. Now is not an opportune time because of all the bureaucratic red tape,” said Dr Thein Myint, managing director of Eleven Media Group.

“I have known that the Health Department will be divided into two, but an official letter has not come out. If it is certain, the department structure may be changed. It is under the authority of the ministry. If the department is divided into two, it needs more human resources. It also needs a higher budgets. The department will have to spend more, and more spending will cause inflation. Immediate appointments are not easy, and much time will be taken for this purpose. There will be more vacancies. This matter should be discussed with well-experienced technicians,” said Dr Phone Myint, the retired deputy director-general of the Department of Health Planning.

The Ministry of Health is comprised of eight departments—the minister’s office, the department of health, the medical research department (lower Myanmar), pharmaceutical research department (upper Myanmar), the medical research department (central Myanmar), the medical science department, the traditional medicine department and the health planning department.

Among the eight departments, the health department plays a major role, and it consistently gets 90 per cent of its budget demands. It is comprised of 12 sub-departments.

“This matter is not a small one, and it should not be done hurriedly. It will take much time. Every project must have a plan. If not, it will not come true. We do something today, but we do not carry on it tomorrow. Such bad habits should be dropped,” said a retired director of the Department of Health.

The restructuring of the Health Department of Health is one of several restructurings within the Myanmar government to be implemented in the next fiscal year. The Directorate of Telecommunications will be split from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and reconstituted as the Myanmar Communication Commission.

Under the current government, more spending was allocated to the health sector than under previous governments. However, most of these funds are used for salaries. Therefore, there is still a great need for the government to provide direct services to people, according to a recently published study on budget allocation within Myanmar’s social sector.

http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9514:government-strongly-criticised-for-planning-to-separate-two-from-health-department&catid=44:national&Itemid=384