General practice residency training program in Thailand: past, present, and future

The General Practice was approved by the Thai Medical Council as a specialty in 1969. The residency training programs were revised in 1992. The first three - year rotating postgraduate residency training program was started in 1973 with a total of 9 programs by the late 1980s. Seven were in Bangkok, and the other 2 were in the North. The programs contained curricula objectives, clinical rotation in various disciplines including a general practice block in provincial or community hospitals. The weakness of the programs was the lack of a general practice department, a general practice trainer or preceptor and a general practice course organizer. Finally, the General Practitioners Association played a little role in the postgraduate general practice residency. After the revision, the general practice residency was changed to family medicine residency training in 1999. The College of Family Physicians of Thailand was established to take a central role in postgraduate education.