Thailand to revive its medical tourism sector amid COVID pandemic

[webfact]

The luxury-grade Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok has launched its first-ever COVID-19 recovery clinic. (Photo courtesy of the hospital)

 

Businesses aim to profit from government's 'living with COVID' strategy

APORNRATH PHOONPHONGPHIPHAT, Nikkei staff writer

 

BANGKOK -- With the Thai government planning to reopen the country to foreign tourists as part of its strategy of learning to live with COVID, Thai businesses aim to offer COVID-related services as well as revive medical tourism.

 

The upscale Bumrungrad International Hospital has launched its first COVID-19 recovery clinic, offering all COVID solutions to affluent Thais and foreigners, as the government prepares to reopen the country roughly by November.

 

"The COVID-19 recovery unit is a medical hub for people whose lives are affected by COVID," Artirat Charukitpipat, the hospital's chief executive officer, told reporters on last Wednesday. The Bumrungrad unit delivers care to infected patients and also treats people who have "long COVID" symptoms such as lung problems.

 

Discover Cigna’s range of health insurance solutions created for expats and local nationals living in Thailand - click to view

 

Full story: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Health-Care/Thailand-to-revive-its-medical-tourism-sector-amid-COVID-pandemic

 

-- © Copyright Nikkei Asian Review 2021-10-09

 

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[Gold Star]

Yes, come to Thailand for the choice and availability of vaccines! 

It's great!

[lujanit]

I am registered at Bumrungrad for a vaccine jab x 2.  They accepted me as I had been there before.  There has been no contact from them in the last four months.  Now they are trying to jump on the covid 'recovery' bandwagon to make a large amount of baht.  Seems a bit ingenious to me.

[bkk6060]

3 hours ago, lujanit said:

I am registered at Bumrungrad for a vaccine jab x 2.  They accepted me as I had been there before.  There has been no contact from them in the last four months.  Now they are trying to jump on the covid 'recovery' bandwagon to make a large amount of baht.  Seems a bit ingenious to me.

For Moderna?

Probably next year.

[Sydebolle]

This is excellent news. Just make sure that you print on each and every brochure, leaflet and flyer as well as mention it in TV spots and printed advertisements, that all non-Thais are being charged 5 to 10 times the price of a semi-divine Khon Thai. 

 

[ezzra]

A foreigner friend of mine got the Corona and admitted himself to and upmarket Bkk hospital at 30,000 baht a day for room only, and the communication in English, the service and food that he got there was far, far below exceptions and quality for that joint and that price, so, good luck with the "medical tourism" thingy...

[Sydebolle]

3 minutes ago, ezzra said:

A foreigner friend of mine got the Corona and admitted himself to and upmarket Bkk hospital at 30,000 baht a day for room only, and the communication in English, the service and food that he got there was far, far below exceptions and quality for that joint and that price, so, good luck with the "medical tourism" thingy...

What do you expect for 30,000 Baht a day? A service level like the Mandarin-Oriental which costs a fraction of said amount? 

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The upscale Bumrungrad International Hospital has launched its first COVID-19 recovery clinic, offering all COVID solutions to affluent Thais and foreigners, as the government prepares to reopen the country roughly by November.

Sickening.

[brommers]

The behaviour of the Health Minister, his characterisation of farangs as dirty, the wholly unscientific selection of vaccines, the bureaucracy that resulted in blocking the order for Moderna for months, the shipping of infected people out of Bangkok resulting in nationwide spreading of infection, citizens dying in the streets, the itterly ludicrous manner that private hospitals operated registration for Moderna using sites like Shopee, the experimentation of subcutaneous vaccination on the public, the forced vaccination of people with Sinovac, the incompetence in contracting with AZ Siam Bioscience for vaccine supply, etc etc etc.

 

Oh yes come to Thailand as a medical tourist and see how you will receive world class treatment. You must be out of your mind!

[itsari]

Medical tourism must be in  a similar financial nightmare as hotels and bargirls .

[crazykopite]

I live on KP have been waiting a year to get dentures fitted in Bangkok and am still not prepared to go up there due to so many red zones I would have to travel through looks like I will be waiting another good 6 months even tho I have had 2 AZ vaccines I’m not going to take the risk 

[MUSTYJACK]

My brother in law in BKK, 2 weeks after receiving his first Covid jab, Astra Zenica,  came down with Covid about 6 weeks ago, and after a week of feverish coughing he started to have trouble breathing. He had a pulse oximeter and the reading was 90%. He was in a bad way.

 

His family contacted many hospitals by phone but no hospital would take him. They personally went to 7 or 8 hospitals around BKK both government and private, begging them to find a bed, but to no avail. Full, no beds, no doctors, go away.

 

Eventually, after 2 days, through a contact of a contact who knew someone high up the management chain at Bumrungrad, a bed there was found for him, and after collating reams of paperwork, mostly relating to a positive covid test,  an ambulance was eventually sent to collect my brother in law.

 

He spent 17 days in hospital. The treatment, care, facilities and especially the food was excellent and eventually he was discharged. Medication, tests, more tests, x rays, a team of Doctors and nurses operating mostly by video calls to the room. the nurses when they came into the room were fully enclosed in bio hazard gear.  But he recovered and his life had in all probability been saved.

 

The bill for this came to around 500,000 baht.  My brother in law is not particularly wealthy, lower middle class would describe his status, but the bill, most of which was covered by the covid insurance he had taken out when the pandemic started was, after much to-ing and fro-ing, paid by the insurance company.

 

Half a million baht, considering it saved his life ..... cheap at half the price.  The medication he received was similar to that given to patients in Western hospitals. Whether patients in Thai government hospitals would receive the same expensive medication I dont know.

 

 

[Albert Zweistein]

9 hours ago, MUSTYJACK said:

My brother in law in BKK, 2 weeks after receiving his first Covid jab, Astra Zenica,  came down with Covid about 6 weeks ago, and after a week of feverish coughing he started to have trouble breathing. He had a pulse oximeter and the reading was 90%. He was in a bad way.

 

His family contacted many hospitals by phone but no hospital would take him. They personally went to 7 or 8 hospitals around BKK both government and private, begging them to find a bed, but to no avail. Full, no beds, no doctors, go away.

 

Eventually, after 2 days, through a contact of a contact who knew someone high up the management chain at Bumrungrad, a bed there was found for him, and after collating reams of paperwork, mostly relating to a positive covid test,  an ambulance was eventually sent to collect my brother in law.

 

He spent 17 days in hospital. The treatment, care, facilities and especially the food was excellent and eventually he was discharged. Medication, tests, more tests, x rays, a team of Doctors and nurses operating mostly by video calls to the room. the nurses when they came into the room were fully enclosed in bio hazard gear.  But he recovered and his life had in all probability been saved.

 

The bill for this came to around 500,000 baht.  My brother in law is not particularly wealthy, lower middle class would describe his status, but the bill, most of which was covered by the covid insurance he had taken out when the pandemic started was, after much to-ing and fro-ing, paid by the insurance company.

 

Half a million baht, considering it saved his life ..... cheap at half the price.  The medication he received was similar to that given to patients in Western hospitals. Whether patients in Thai government hospitals would receive the same expensive medication I dont know.

 

 

Thai or foreign brother in law ?

[MUSTYJACK]

Quote

Thai or foreign brother in law ?

 

 

Thai

[hotchilli]

On 10/9/2021 at 3:15 AM, webfact said:

Businesses aim to profit from government's 'living with COVID' strategy

As evident in Phuket, now Bumungrad want a piece of the action.

Phuket you get locked up in a quarantine hotel, now at Bumungard you can have your money surgically removed with precision.

 

[lujanit]

On 10/9/2021 at 7:27 AM, bkk6060 said:

For Moderna?

Probably next year.

No I was told Pfizer.  Then the idiots in government said private entities were not allowed to import vaccines. So dead end there.