Apisit Thamrongwarangkun, M.D., has brought the concept of the Bio-Circular-Green Economy or BCG Economy to improve the public health service system of Ubolratana Hospital to be a good quality hospital with equality, efficiency, and community participation as co-owner of the hospital, as well as the development of sustainable community health systems to help poor and needy people (e.g., bedridden patients, handicapped people, or chronic disease patients) changing them from being a burden to being, a source of power in the community. Additionally, several health promotion and disease prevention systems have been set up to prevent the emergence of new suffering people. Chemical-free food banks; bananas, Dendrocalamus sericeus (Phai Sang Mon), and timber trees used in home construction are also established on the vast areas of land belonging to the hospital. Free natural resources Sunlight, rainwater, carbon dioxide, and organic waste, are used for producing the Four Requisites (food, clothing, shelter, and medicines; according to Buddhist teaching suggested), and funding for people to be healthier and have a better quality of life. Moreover, community members are selected for 6-month training by community hospitals and academic institutes to be full-time community caregivers. The selected person must have love and care for the community, have a strong volunteer spirit, as well as being accepted by the community, in the hope that they will bring their expertise and knowledge for the ultimate benefit of people in the community. Once these people lead stable, wealthy, sustainable lifestyles; as they have an honest livelihood, they can lead their community to become the role model called “Peaceful Village” which, in the long-term, will be able to expand to become Peaceful District. Under the support of the Ramathibodi Project for Community Hospitals, Dream World, Ltd., and SCG Foundation, the project has been carried out successfully in Ubolratana District and Nam Phong District of Khon Kaen province and is ready to expand the idea to Khun Han District in Sisaket province as well as to other provinces. In the long-term, such stronger communities will continue to hire full-time community caregivers as well as pass on these ideas and practices to the younger generations of doctors and medical students in the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, and finally in different areas across the country.

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