Herbal Medicine Usage in Current Health Service System: A Case Study of Sung Noen Contracting Unit of Primary Care-CUP, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

The objectives of this research were to study the herbal medicine usage situation in Sung Noen Contracting Unit of Primary Care-CUP; to search for the main factors related to herbal medicine usage with effectiveness in Sung Noen Contracting Unit of Primary Care-CUP; to integrate herbal medicine usage with effectiveness, efficiency and security in both modern and Thai traditional medicine in Sung Noen Contracting Unit of Primary Care-CUP. Action research was done and divided into three phases: (1) pre-action phase: to evaluate the herbal medicine usage situation from past to present; (2) action phase: in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted among staff dealing with herbal medicine usage to update criteria for the herbal medicine usage manual and training the staff; (3) evaluation phase: treatment results after herbal medicine usage and evaluation of the manual. Target groups were staffs from modern and Thai traditional medicine in Sung Noen Contracting Unit of Primary Care-CUP, and Thai traditional medicine consumers. This study was conducted from February to June 2010. Pre-action phase: found that trends in overall herbal medicine usage were rather good, that is, the value of herbal medicine usage in hospitals met the goal while that in health centers was higher and met the goal closely. Action phase: found that policies for herbal medicine and health service systems in hospitals and health centers supported herbal medicine usage, but there were no clear policy implications for physicians and public relations campaigns in hospital and communities. Herbal medicine usage results were found to relieve symptoms, be safer and have fewer side effects compared with modern medicine. Draft criteria for improving the manual on herbal medicine usage were prepared and used to train staff, (98 persons, or 34.51%). Evaluation phase: found that systematic factors, factors of current and Thai traditional medicine providers, and consumer factor influenced herbal medicine usage and results; the criteria manual was further elaborated and will be evaluated in the future. Policy recommendations for district health service systems were to clearly publish herbal medicine usage data for replacing or being used in parallel with modern medicine, and information on rational herbal medicine usage for treatment and herbal medicine usage for community self-care. Key words: Herbal medicine usage, Heath Service System, Sung Noen CUP