Resident Coordinator’s Remarks for World Health Day 2023 and 75th Anniversary of the World Health Organization

Dr. Opart, Dr. Suwannachai, Distinguished Ministry of Public Health officials,

WHO colleagues and friends.

I am delighted to have this opportunity to congratulate the WHO on its 75th anniversary.

Health and wellbeing are universal human values and the WHO’s promotion of both globally throughout its history has done immense good for individuals, communities, and nations.

Importantly, however, the WHO isn’t sitting on its laurels. Rather, it continues to set forward-looking agendas as it brings world-class technical expertise to bear on its deep relationships of trust with Member States to improve health outcomes for all, including the most vulnerable.

This benefits nations like Thailand, which has been a close partner of the WHO for decades.

Dr. Opart, recently a colleague of yours told me that what your ministry values most in its long-standing partnership with the WHO is its great credibility and social capital.

I believe we can leverage these assets of the WHO in Thailand, which has one of the most robust health care systems in ASEAN, for taking the country’s health agenda forward domestically and across the region.

We are at the midway point to the 2030 Agenda with the majority of the countries having experienced backsliding on many of their SDGs, including health and wellbeing.

To protect Thailand’s gains on SDG 3, we will need to sustain Thailand’s investments in health and to adopt a whole-of-society approach to scale up interventions on non-communicable diseases and poor mental health.

I learned yesterday that together these two account for 76% of the total burden of healthcare, which makes it all the more urgent to prioritize effective actions on them with the involvement of all stakeholders from the Ministry of Health all the way down to each community.

Studies are showing that challenges on mental health and NCDs are going to become even more pronounced in years to come with many young people also being impacted by one or both.

Importantly, poor mental health is often left undiagnosed and untreated, which makes it invisible.

Going forward, I see the role of telemedicine initiatives, health volunteers and the power of social media as increasingly important for transformative results.

Thailand started scaling up telemedicine initiatives in partnership with the WHO early on in the pandemic with great success and these initiatives are already being expanded to NCDs.

In one example WHO has been working with Chiang Mai University in Lampang to reduce the prevalence of hypertension and will be expanded to 6 more areas this year with MOPH. Groups of trained volunteers, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, are collaborating with village volunteers to provide basic treatment and lifestyle counselling to people with high blood pressure.

This especially makes a big difference in remote villages where regular access to modern medicine is lacking. Telemedicine initiatives such as this can be scaled up nationwide and made more effective with the engagement of the community and local partners.

Similarly, the country’s one million health volunteers, who proved so pivotal in containing the pandemic, can serve a key role in facilitating a strategic shift in the delivery of mental health services from hospitals to community-based systems to increase access, engage families better and lessen stigmas on mental disorders.

This shift is in line with the recommendations of the WHO and we are already seeing it taking place with far more people accessing community-based mental health services.

By expanding these services further through targeted investments at primary health care level, we can achieve even greater results.

At the same time, we can harness the benefits of social media and other digital tools to spread key messages about mental health and lifestyle choices that can yield better health outcomes.

Finally, allow me to congratulate the WHO again on its 75th anniversary and its many accomplishments.

We feel privileged that the UN, including the WHO, continues to be a widely trusted organization, according to recent polls.

We remain deeply committed to improving lives nationwide to leave no one behind and we will continue earning this great level of trust to contribute in realizing our common goal of “Health for All”.

Thank you.