Health > Intergovernmental conference of Far-Eastern countries on rural hygiene : preparatory papers : national reports : report of Siam

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Pharmacists are trained only at the Chulalongkorn University.
The medical assistants for health work are trained at any one of
the divisional hospitals. Recruits are admitted after they have
passed standard six in secondary education or after they have
served as dressers in the Army Medical Service. A training
period of three years is required for raw recruits, while men from
the Army Medical Service need only be trained for one year.
Health nurses are required to be trained as above, with a similar
qualification on entry. Sanitary inspectors are also trained at
a divisional hospital school. For those of the eighth standard
in secondary education, only a one-year course is necessary,
while those of the sixth standard must be trained for two years.
Hospital nurses are trained under a similar standard as that for
health nurses, but such training may also be given at second-
grade hospitals.
The question of midwives for rural areas is exceedingly
difficult. The rural midwives at present available are
unacquainted with even the elementary principles of modern
practice. The Department of Public Health once organised a
short period of training as an experiment. The result was to
drive the majority of fully qualified nurse-midwives into the
towns. The present aim is to attach a nurse-midwife to each
health centre, where, besides her duty in general maternity
and child welfare work, she is to inspect and supervise all the
registered rural midwives in her area. This is as far as it is
found possible to go at present, but it is believed that, with
improved communications and a further advance in public
education, it may be possible to institute a better class of
communal midwives by a system of strict supervision and
a higher standard of qualification for registration. With
improved communications, qualified midwives in populous
centres will be able to give more extensive service than is possible
at present.
3. Health Activities and Finance.
The aim of the public health work in this country, as
recommended by the National Committee on Public Health
and Medical Services, is rather ambitious. The activities of