Thai ER doctor says 10 doctors cannot meet demand

I'd suggest that Thailand is not alone when it comes to overworked medical staff.

But, 10 doctors on a morning ER shift would be considered lavish staffing in the West. Despite this, the claim is that queues still spill into corridors.

Surely, that tells you the problem isn’t the number of doctors. Rather, it’s the flood of walk‑ins and referrals treating the ER as a catch‑all clinic.

In Australia or the UK, nurse triage and GP gatekeeping filter out half these cases before they ever reach a doctor. Here, the system instead throws sheer manpower at the front door, and still drowns.

As I see it, the bottleneck isn’t a shortage of staff, it’s actually the design, where the ER is treated as the universal intake point for everything from minor ailments to complex trauma, leaving even heavy staffing unable to keep pace.

6 minutes ago, Jim Waldron said:

But, 10 doctors on a morning ER shift would be considered lavish staffing in the West. Despite this, the claim is that queues still spill into corridors

I went to emergency last week in canada. 1 doctor in the whole emergency department. Took me over 9 hours just to get in to see her.

She was taking care of approx 40 patients at the time.

There is a reorganization needed in the healthcare.. Thai people can go to the hospital even for minor issues or problems. Everything is crowded and overloaded. It would be much better that only severe cases only go the ER to start with. Not a walk-in situation as it is now.

Doctors should have to make a choice. Or their own clinic or being a a doctor in the hospital. Most specialists have their own clinic and in the morning and evening they are busy in that so there are only a few hours they can spend in the hospital.

In fact there should be, as in many countries, a general doctor. The people must go to that clinic and he will solve a lot of issues, such as repeated medications, minor injuries, bloodpressure, diabetic check ups, cold and flu and other "normal " diseases, and specific problems he can sent to the hospital where you need to make an appointment first. Just like in a private hospital. The specialist doctor will have more time for the patient. But the specialist can't have his own clinic anymore. It would take a lot of pressure of all who are working in the hospital. Not hours waiting anymore, long queues and a better working ER room. A general doctor can solve a lot of problems in his clinic too. Just an example. I had a urine retention and went to the private clinic of the specialist urology. He told me to go to the ER room to get a katheter.. Just to should not be needed as he could do that in his own clinic. I had to wait in the ER another 2 hours before they relieved me, in fact he could have solved it much quicker and easier. But as everything in Thailand. the greed and hung for money is gigantic

2 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

For foreigners living in or visiting Thailand, the post is a reminder that waits at a busy state-hospital emergency department may be lengthy, particularly where patients arrive without life-threatening conditions.

Can't really tell how many farang, if any, are in the above OP picture but any suggestion on this website against farang going to public hospital is a sure-fire thumbs down (I got 4 the last time).