Board members of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) last week voted 4:3 to scrap the regulator's plan to develop the telehealth project valued at 3.8 billion baht on the grounds that the project is not in line with the objective of the NBTC's budget spending under its Universal Service Obligation (USO) project.
The majority of board members insist that the budget spending under the USO project framework focuses on supporting telecom network installation and expansion to bridge the digital divide, while the telehealth project investment focuses mainly on IT systems, particularly the cloud server system, according to a source on the NBTC's board.
The board held its third meeting to consider the project last Friday.
The commissioners who voted in favour of the project were NBTC chairman Dr Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck, Pol Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn and Torpong Selanon.
Those who voted to scrap the project were AM Thanapant Raicharoen, Pirongrong Ramasoota, Suphat Suphachalasai and Sompop Purivigraipong.
The source said the majority of the board insisted that they did not block any useful projects but pointed out that the telehealth proposal was not in line with the USO policy.
Moreover, granting approval to the project might risk drawing legal risks to the board in future.
The majority of board members also assigned management to bring other projects related to the public health system to the board's consideration in the near future, such as the expansion of telecom networks in sub-districts to support hospitals in border areas, the source said.
The NBTC piloted the telehealth project two years ago under the second USO master plan at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
During that time, the NBTC spent more than 100 million baht on the telehealth pilot project with a focus on providing a subsidy for telecom infrastructure and 5G networks.
The move was meant to ease people's lives during that difficult time as well as help shape up the smart hospital concept. The pilot was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health.
The aborted telehealth project was originally meant to be developed under the third of the NBTC's USO master plans, implemented from April 2022 until May 29, 2023.
The telehealth project is one of 13 projects worth 8 billion baht combined under the budget of the third USO plan.
Dr Sarana earlier explained that the project is aimed at covering 1,194 sub-district hospitals nationwide.
If this project is completed, it is expected to cover 5-10% or 50,000 patients registered with the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security which have 500,000 registered patients in total.
Dr Sarana said NBTC's telehealth project does not overlap with those of the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society but all of them would work together to benefit people with the same standards.
