NHSO seeks additional Bt20 billion to cover increasing cost of Covid-19 treatment
The National Health Security Office (NHSO) has proposed the government to allocate additional budget of Bt20.82 billion to cover the increasing cost of Covid-19 treatment for patients in home isolation and community isolation centres nationwide, said NHSO secretary-general Dr Jadet Thammathat-Aree on Friday.
“The cost of Covid-19 treatment during May to July was at around Bt5 to 7 billion,” he said. “However, as the number of daily infections increased, the treatment cost also rose to Bt11 billion in August and then to Bt15 billion in September, well above NHSO’s estimation and therefore forced us to seek additional budget.”
Jadet further added that the office has proposed to use the money from the Covid-19 emergency loan decree that the government has made. “The meeting of NHSO board chaired by Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has approved the proposal on October 11 and will later submit it to the Cabinet meeting,” he added.
“While we are waiting for the budget to be approved, NHSO will use the money from the National Health Security Fund that has no obligation with other projects to cover the outstanding Covid-19 treatment cost,” said Jadet. “We believe that the additional budget will be allocated to NHSO around mid November.”
