Thailand Sending Medical Team Tuesday To Aid Japan Quake Victims

[webfact]

Thailand sending medical team Tuesday to aid Japan quake victims

BANGKOK, March 14 – Thailand’s Public Health Ministry has prepared to dispatch a medical team early Tuesday to help earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, Public Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Paijit Warachit said on Monday.

The team includes Dr Pairote Kruekanchana, Dr Jirapong Supsaowapak, both emergency medicine specialists, and Panchasin Somboon, a nurse specialist. All of them graduated from Japan and speak Japanese fluently, he said.

The group is scheduled to leave Bangkok at 2am Tuesday and arrive at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport at 7am before leaving for tsunami-ravaged areas of Sendai.

Meanwhile, the Thai Foreign Ministry will seek approval from the Cabinet on Monday to provide emergency relief funds amounting to Bt200 million (US$6.6 million) to assist Japan after Friday’s massive earthquake and the resultant tsunami, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on Sunday after meeting with Japanese ambassador to Thailand Seiji Kojima.

The Thai government plans to dispatch 35 medical teams from the Public Health Ministry to Japan “within the next one or two days.” They would be stationed at a Thai Buddhist temple in Narita and offer medical checkups, along with providing rehabilitation services to Thais living there as well as to Japanese citizens.

In a related development, some Thai tourists returned home after the huge earthquake and giant wave of tsunami struck Japan on March 11.

Upon their arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the returnees said that they panicked over the last Friday’s natural disaster, adding the atmosphere in the quake-hit cities was quiet. The residents there stockpiled food and other consumer goods and shops were closed earlier than usual.

However, the Japanese people themselves are not afraid about the situation, they said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-03-14

[jimbeam1]

Well done Thailand

jb1

[bangkokeddy]

[Humphrey Bear]

Sensible, sending Japanese-speaking specialists.

How many other countries are thinking ahead like this?

[Bagwan]

Have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick? What is the point of the medical teams remaining at Narita? How many casualties are in that locality? Do the victims have to be transport there?

I'm cynical enough to believe that the news that Thais and Japanese will be rehabilitated, whatever that means, is sheer political BS. Surely the guiding line should be that those in the most urgent need of treatment be dealt with first irrespective of nationality .

[pogal]

So they should too. Japan responded well to the Tsunami here in Thailand with money and an expert Rescue team (and more recently in the NZ earthquake).

Im surprised they are not sending more. English is the common language and very commonly used as a medium in Japan. Most Thai doctors here can speak English so shouldn't be a problem to work alongside other English speaking people.

Anyway, good luck to them

[atsiii]

Have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick? What is the point of the medical teams remaining at Narita? How many casualties are in that locality? Do the victims have to be transport there?

I'm cynical enough to believe that the news that Thais and Japanese will be rehabilitated, whatever that means, is sheer political BS. Surely the guiding line should be that those in the most urgent need of treatment be dealt with first irrespective of nationality .

Agreed. So... did Thailand approve 200M baht in aid? That was supposed to be done yesterday, but I don't see anywhere in the news I can read that it actually happened. 200M would at least be respectable compared to the embarrassing 5M originally pledged by the Thai government--marginally enough to fix a couple of houses. But did this aid money actually get approved?

Are we slapping Thailand on the back for sending three (3) medical personnel to the stricken area? Three? Are you serious?

It sounds like the 35 health care teams being sent to Narita are primarily intended to help Thai citizens (read, voters!) who are in Japan at this time. And oh yes, they will also help Japanese--so long as they speak Thai.

Aside from the "three-person" medical team sent to the quake site, I'd like to know if the 200M baht (+/- 6.6M dollars) was actually approved, because didn't Thailand only send +/- $10,000 to help with the Haiti earthquake?

Japan stepped up to the plate and helped Thailand and others affected by the 2004 tsunami to the tune of $500 Million; and Japan is one of if not the leading economic investor in Thailand--not to mention being a huge tourism partner. And yet we are supposed to be excited and slap Thailand on the back for sending "three" medical personnel to the quake stricken zone? It seems Thailand does a much better job of accepting money and aid from the international community, than it does in stepping up to the plate and giving when it's needed.

Edited March 15, 2011 by atsiii