Nearly 1,000 doctors a year are leaving Thailand’s public healthcare system, according to the head of a young doctors’ network, who says heavy workloads, burnout and structural problems are pushing many out despite continued demand.
Dr Supanan Janeteerawong, president of the Thai Junior Doctor Network, said today, September 22, that many doctors she had spoken to still wanted to practise medicine and had chosen the profession themselves.
Pressure from the healthcare system, rather than the profession alone, was contributing to decisions to leave government service.
Thailand now produces around 3,000 medical graduates a year, up from roughly 2,000 previously. Competition for medical school also remains high through the TCAS admissions system, with medicine consistently among the country’s three most competitive fields.
All medical graduates must pass the National License examination before receiving a medical licence, regardless of where they studied.
The network generally considers doctors under 35 to be part of the younger generation. While medicine was traditionally viewed as a prestigious, financially secure profession, younger doctors increasingly see it as work that requires significant personal commitment and sacrifice.
Social media, wider access to information and greater use of AI and technology have also changed how younger doctors work and how the public views the profession.
For newly qualified doctors, most must complete a one-year skills enhancement programme within the government system before specialising. Some doctors trained at state medical schools may also have service obligations lasting up to three years.
Supanan estimated that nearly 1,000 doctors leave the government system each year, including some who have already completed their service obligations. Doctors in their first three years of work are increasingly changing career paths, leaving the system or pursuing specialist training through other routes.
Burnout and depression among frontline doctors are also significant concerns.
“For younger doctors, the stress and pressure do not come from the profession alone. They also come from the healthcare system, patient numbers, doctor shortages and problems with how doctors are distributed.”
Those pressures can translate into extreme working hours.
“Doctors’ work is already hard. It is so hard there is no time to sleep. Sometimes it is 36 hours straight, then eight hours of sleep, then another 36 hours, because there really are not enough doctors in the system.”
Supanan rejected the idea that younger doctors simply lacked resilience compared with previous generations, arguing that each generation entered medicine under different social conditions and should work together rather than accuse younger doctors of being unwilling to tolerate difficult conditions.
“Our goal in becoming doctors is to treat patients well. Rather than asking whether doctors can endure it or not, I think we should look more at the system and whether it is good enough for every doctor to stay in it.”
Higher salaries alone would not solve the retention problem.
The government should examine what each new generation of doctors needs, including opportunities for specialist training, career development and transfers that allow doctors posted far from home to return closer to their families.
Workplace culture also matters. Doctors dealing with high-pressure or toxic environments while living far from home may be more likely to resign.
Simply producing more doctors would therefore not solve the shortage if the system continued losing them.
“No matter how many doctors we produce, it will never be enough because doctors will keep leaving the system. It is not that they lack the passion or desire to be doctors. From what I have seen, most simply cannot cope with the system.”
Supanan also called for long-term planning on the distribution of doctors rather than policies that change with each government. Sending more doctors to one region can simply create shortages elsewhere, meaning workforce planning should be based on evidence and research at a national level.
She also pushed back against assumptions that younger doctors are too inexperienced to treat patients effectively.
Doctors who graduate and receive licences meet the same professional standards, while those who complete their first year of supervised training may already have treated thousands of patients.
Younger doctors are often the first to assess patients before referring complex cases to specialists, particularly in community hospitals where diagnostic resources may be more limited than at major teaching hospitals.
Newer technology should not be treated as a weakness either, with tools such as ultrasound potentially improving assessment when used effectively.
Communication is also essential because patients’ trust and willingness to cooperate with treatment can depend heavily on how doctors explain their decisions.
For people considering medicine, Supanan said the profession remained respected and stable but required genuine commitment.
Those entering primarily in search of wealth may find that medicine does not meet those expectations, particularly given the workload compared with the financial return.
The story Young Thai doctors quit over system pressures, not long hours alone as seen on Thaiger News.
