Patient Rights and Barriers to Emergency Care Access under UCEP Policy in Private Hospitals

Abstract

 The Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) is a Thai government policy that aims to provide emergency medical care to emergency patients. The aim is to provide emergency patients with quick and efficient access to the nearest medical services, regardless of their insurance coverage or ability to pay. UCEP covers the cost of emergency medical treatment for the first 72 hours or until the patient's condition is no longer critical. UCEP is a collaboration between the National Institute for Emergency Medicine (NIEM) and the National Health Security Office (NHSO). However, despite the UCEP, patients still face problems accessing treatment in private hospitals. This may be due to various reasons such as denial of patients, billing, refusal to transfer, and lack of knowledge and understanding of UCEP rights.
This article also presents recommendations and solutions for various problems related to UCEP rights, such as increasing public relations about UCEP rights, supervising private hospitals to comply with UCEP rights, developing a patient referral system, and promoting social participation in raising awareness of UCEP rights. In addition, the conflict between the public health service system and the emergency departments in both public and private hospitals, especially in private hospitals, is a challenge that has arisen and needs a systematic and participatory solution to reach an agreement. The solutions to various problems that occur in the emergency department, such as promoting disease prevention and basic self-care for the people, increasing access to primary care, public basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation, reveals increasing resources for the emergency department, developing a coordination system, preventing and solving violence problems, and promoting the well-being of personnel. In onclusion, this article emphasizes the importance of UCEP rights in protecting critically ill patients and presents solutions to various problems to ensure that all patients can access quality and timely treatment