Thai policy of hospitalization after positive Covid test prompts change after stress on system

[Danderman123]

3 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Lol. Well of course they are because they’re not testing! You won’t see deaths everywhere, it’s more subtle than that, but it is clear there is a woeful lack of testing going on. If you think otherwise, whatever. You should probably work for the gov, would fit right in. 

Chonburi is testing at least 1,000 people a day, which is sufficient for the province.

[ExpatOilWorker]

17 days of which 13 was in ICU.
Fairly reasonable cost.

 

[Danderman123]

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

When you look at the numbers the argument ‘ambulances are not driving people around’ etc.. seem flawed.. 

 

Imagine 50,000 people in Thailand had died of covid-19... If it wasn’t reported a ‘Big news’ would it even be noticeable? 

 

 

People say, bodies would be lining the streets... but no, they wouldn’t. Round the clock funerals? Run the numbers vs population and normal mortality rates.....   I don’t think excess deaths would be noticed. 

 

 

Take Chonburi... 1,535,000 population (provincial population). 2.2% of the Population of Thailand. 

Mortality rate for Thailand: 7.746 per 1000 people (in any one year / pre-covid). 

 

Thus: it would normally be expected that 11,890 people in Chonburi die each year. 

 

IF Thailand had ‘huge' Covid-19 deaths, i.e. 50,000 people per year...   and 2.2% for Chonburi (proportion of Thai population in Chonburi) is 1102 excess deaths in the year.

 

In a province which has 11,890 deaths in a year would an extra 1102 be notable ? noticeable? of note? even recognisable ????

 

 

There are 1318 hospitals in Thailand (across 77 provinces) assuming Chonburi being one of the more populace provinces has higher than average 25 hospitals (equal divide which would be 17)... 

 

Thats an average increase of 3.7 deaths per month per hospital... Noticeable ???  not individually per hospital and perhaps not by amphur... 

 

IMO, the only way any excess deaths would be noticeable would be if the excess were astronomical or if Thailand had an exceptional census recording system and there was a central database with someone carefully monitoring the figures reported on a weekly basis. 

 

If 50,000 people died in a year in Thailand from COVID, with an infection fatality rate of 1%, that would mean 5 million infected. That would be very noticeable. Hospitals would be swamped, ambulances would be driving patients around looking for beds, etc.

 

Some have claimed 20,000 excess deaths over the last year. The only way to explain that would be a very high infection fatality rate, so that there were fewer than 2 million infections.

[impulse]

6 hours ago, scorecard said:

I'm doubting there's any value in sending positive people to the now many 'field hospitals'.

 

Many photos show the rows and rows of beds in these 'field hospitals', but none show any form of equipment.

 

The value is in keeping them away from the general population until they're no longer contagious.

 

[scubascuba3]

10 hours ago, mrfill said:

If you are asymptomatic it means you get infected without symptoms.

If you are immune, you don't get infected.

You cannot be immune and asymptomatic at the same time.

Apparently 4 reasons to be +ve and asymptomatic incl false positives, listen to the podcast

[Freeduhdum]

This practice borderlines on incompetence and could be argued as medical malpractice to send any asymptomatic persons to a hospital for long term care. The reasonable thing to do is have the PCR positive "case" be evaluated at a medical facility and then released to an Alternative quarantine location if, after a thorough medical exam are not experiencing symptoms. Nosocomial (hospital acquired) infection is a huge, well established, problem and one can easily argue that sending "cases", who are not sick, who are not patients to a hospital for a long term stay for quarantine purposes only is bad public policy, but more importantly, its bad medicine.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Freeduhdum
grammer

[meechai]

51 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

17 days of which 13 was in ICU.
Fairly reasonable cost.

 

 

Geez Just the Medication was 266k baht or $8550 ....Wow

 

$31,715.00 Total Bill ???? Hope they had Insurance

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by meechai

[scubascuba3]

7 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

They're at the stage of ICU Field Hospitals now..............

 

 

 

that didn't work out well in the UK they soon realised covid symptoms were complex and needed lots of equipment not available at these field type hospitals, maybe Thailand will realise eventually

[scubascuba3]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

What if he'd refused to pay, or was incapable of paying?

Just wondering.

They seem to be withholding passports until payment, but i reckon if you make it clear you can't pay, private hospitals won't want to take you so they'll put you in a govt one

Edited May 4, 2021 by scubascuba3

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Labs up to now had had an agreement with which hospital to send their positive cases to but with the surge in numbers this had created problems with the whole system that was under strain.

So not under control Khun Anutin... your hospitals are stretched to their limits.

[pizzachang]

18 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

This is more in line with what every other country is doing.

Yes, Thailand is experiencing sel-imposed "stress on the system". By not following a simple and proven strategy of 'test', isolate only high risk and inoculate the high risk group first,  a setback scenario is inevitable, along with the panic we are seeing. 

[Bkk Brian]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

The staff at 1668 would contact the infected person and arrange for their care with the patient themselves.

My interpretation of this is that they will need to wait at home until a hospital bed is found but if where they live is suitable for them to isolate safely and they are asymptomatic then they can stay at home?

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

The value is in keeping them away from the general population until they're no longer contagious.

 

An important point.

 

[ericthai]

On 5/4/2021 at 1:36 PM, connda said:

Forcefully incarcerating non-criminals based on a PCR test is ludicrous. 
If you are advocating for that, you are essentially promoting the absolute trashing of human rights - like the right of not being exposed to potentially lethal disease conditions that could kill you when you yourself are either mildly ill or not ill at all.  Anyone promoting that sort of eugenicist garbage is a monster as far as I'm concerned.  There are better ways to handle the situation and they should be used. 
This is why people are avoiding testing.  Then where are you? Just because The Elitists can't trust the Commoners. Something will break and it's more than likely the entire healthcare system at the cost of human lives purposefully place in jeopardy for no good reason other than elitist monsters who are too da*med lazy to design a smarter system of containment an enforcement.  Nope.  One size fits all for the commoners and "too bad, so sad" if the little-people die.  "It's their own fault!!!", they'll say, "The commoners can't be trusted!!!"
You'll never see a minister, upper-level bureaucrat, or any connected people forced into the Concentration Camp conditions they have set out for the rest of the common-folk - and you and me.  Well...unless YOU are connected.  Why?  They understand they may die in those conditions. 

Have you ever considered why it works in the West?  Enforcement and organization.  Maybe it's time for the elite "leaders" to step up and get a grip on the situation instead of basking in their own sick ineptitude. 
Personally given the dire conditions in forced Covid incarceration camps, I'll avoid being tested at just about any cost - as will a large segment of the Thai population.  And I can't blame them one iota.
The problem isn't the people and average citizens.  The problem is with incompetent leadership.  Always has been, always will be.

Wow, where did you get the idea I want to incarcerate anyone?? I said nothing to that effect! I said I dont know what the answer is.....

 

Don't get me started on the jail system in the west,  as it's just a money making machine stacked against the poor to control minorities. 

[Kiujunn]

On 5/4/2021 at 6:33 PM, Danderman123 said:

Field hospitals are for people who test positive, but are asymptomatic.

Not quite correct. 

 

Field hospitals and hospitels are for people who are sick, but - if this were not an infectious disease - would not require hospitalisation but could be treated at home.

So loss of smell, cough, but otherwise healthy > field hospital/hospitel.

 

You stay in the field hospital/hospitel 10 days. Then you are sent home for 2 weeks home quarantine (so yes, they do have home quarantine in Thailand).

No further tests after your first positive test. 

 

[Bkk Brian]

27 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

Not quite correct. 

 

Field hospitals and hospitels are for people who are sick, but - if this were not an infectious disease - would not require hospitalisation but could be treated at home.

So loss of smell, cough, but otherwise healthy > field hospital/hospitel.

 

You stay in the field hospital/hospitel 10 days. Then you are sent home for 2 weeks home quarantine (so yes, they do have home quarantine in Thailand).

No further tests after your first positive test. 

 

Field Hospitals seem to be moving up a gear now, I guess more hospital beds are now needed for those who are more seriously sick:

 

Thailand’s first field hospital equipped with intensive care unit facilities will be officially opened tomorrow (Tuesday), to receive COVID patients with severe symptoms.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/bangkok-to-open-its-first-icu-equipped-field-hospital-on-tuesday/

 

Another massive one here at Impact Arena Bangkok

 

He added that Challenger Hall comprises three buildings, which can be used to separate patients with different symptoms. “Patients in green and orange groups who have no or mild symptoms can be treated in buildings 1 and 2, each of which can accommodate 2,000 beds, while patients in the red group with severe symptoms can be treated in building 3, which can accommodate 1,200. It will be equipped with negative pressure rooms and respirators,” he said.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40000597

[scubascuba3]

9 hours ago, Kiujunn said:

 

No further tests after your first positive test. 

 

I was following a falang on facebook stuck in the system, refused a second test even though zero symptoms, a good chance false positive. A cynic would say they kept him in to get max money

[herfiehandbag]

That is a jolly impressive sticky bun on the front of the table!

[Kiujunn]

5 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I was following a falang on facebook stuck in the system, refused a second test even though zero symptoms, a good chance false positive. A cynic would say they kept him in to get max money

The myth of the false positives is nothing but a myth.

 

A second PCR would have been good before discharge. In Thailand,  they used to demand 2 negative PCRs before they would discharge anybody. 

They are cutting corners now because of lack of resources.