"Health System Performance and Assessment toward the Achievement ofUniversal Health Coverage (UHC)"

Institute for Global Health Policy Research (iGHP), National Center for Global Healthand Medicine (NCGM) is pleased to announce the upcoming seminar led by Dr.
Walaiporn Patcharanarumol, Director of International Health Policy Program (IHPP),
Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. We are fortunate to have Dr. Walaiporn on theoccasion of her visit to Japan as a participant in the highly-anticipated UHC Forum2017 (http://universalhealthcoverageday.org/forum/), which is to be held between
December 12 and 15, 2017 in Tokyo.

Date & Time

Friday, December 15, 2017, 12:00-13:00

Topic"Health System Performance and Assessment toward theAchievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)"

Venue

Institute for Global Health Policy Research, Bureau of International
Cooperation (Ground floor, Training Center Building), National
Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo

Accesshttp://kyokuhp.ncgm.go.jp/eng/aboutus/access.html

Language

English only (No Japanese interpretation will be available)

Admission

Free of charge and open to general public. No advance registration
required. Seating capacity: 40

SpeakerDr. Walaiporn Patcharanarumol has a BSc in Pharm from Khon Khaen University,Thailand (1992), MSc in Health Development from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand(1998), MSc in Social Protection Financing from Maastricht University, theNetherlands (2003) and a PhD in Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene& Tropical Medicine (2008).
Her PhD thesis is “Health Care Financing for the Poor in Lao PDR”. She hadworking experiences in public hospitals of Thailand for several years and has been a
researcher in health care financing at the International Health Policy Programme
since 2001. Her fields of interest include hospital costing, National Health Accounts,
estimation of health expenditures both in short term and long term projection andUniversal Health Coverage, particularly on the Universal Health Coverage Scheme inThailand. During August 2011–April 2012, she was seconded by the Thai Government
to work at WHO-HQ, Department of Health System Financing.
Dr. Walaiporn’s bio can be found on the RESYST
website: http://resyst.lshtm.ac.uk/users/dr-walaiporn-patcharanarumolReport on "Health System Performance and Assessment toward the Achievement ofUniversal Health Coverage (UHC)" (December 15, 2017)
During the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Forum 2017 held in Tokyo, iGHP hada privilege to invite Dr. Walaiporn Patcharanarumol, Director of International Health
Policy Program (IHPP), Ministry of Public Health, Thailand, who gave us aninvaluable and substantive lecture on UHC. Dr. Walaiporn is one of the mostsuccessful and influential global health leaders in Thailand and beyond, and it was awonderful opportunity to listen to her in a very close and interactive setting.
As a health financing expert, Dr. Walaiporn made a presentation on Universal
Health Coverage and on Thailand’s unique experience over the past half a centuryin achieving the country’s Universal Health Coverage Scheme. Some of the key
messages she delivered included 1) With strong political commitment, UHC can belaunched and achieved at the low level of income; 2) Peace and sustained
economic growth can mobilize ‘more money for health’; 3) Universal access to goodquality essential health services is the real goal, not just affordable or cost-freeservices; 4)Building strong capacity on the health system and policy research within
the country is critical; and 5) Participatory governance systems ensure real
ownership.
During the seminar, Dr. Walaiporn created several discussion sessions to facilitate
open dialogues with the audience. From these very interactive and informative
sessions, we learned that UHC is context-specific, therefore, each country must
learn from other countries’ model cases and experiences. In concluding theseminar, Dr. Walaiporn stressed that the success of UHC in each country depends
much on the spirit of committed health workers, and that political and financial
commitments as well as countries’ capacity for evidence-based policy are theessential factors for both sustainable and resilient health systems development andfinancial protection.