Foreigners' Illnesses Make Thai Hospitals Healthy

[george]

Foreigners' illnesses make Thai hospitals healthy

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's private hospitals served 1.28 million foreigners in 2005, earning 33 billion baht ($846 million), and can look forward to an even better performance this year, an economic think tank reported on Friday.

The Kasikorn Research Centre (KRC) predicted that Thailand's private hospitals are likely to serve around 1.4 million foreign patients this year with revenue of around 36.4 billion baht ($933 million).

Kasikorn, in a survey on Thailand's hospital sector, concluded that the health care business catering to foreigners would improve in 2006 because of an expected recovery in the tourism industry following the slowdown in 2005 caused by the December 26, 2004, tsunami.

The survey noted that the opening of Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport, scheduled for June, 2006, would also boost Thailand's efforts to become a medical hub for the region.

KRC warned, however, that Thailand's hospitals are facing higher operating costs in terms of personnel wages, electricity bills and interest rates while at the same time facing tougher competition for foreign patients from hospitals in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.

--DPA 2006-02-03

[Potter]

Foreigners' illnesses make Thai hospitals healthy

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's private hospitals served 1.28 million foreigners in 2005, earning 33 billion baht ($846 million),

--DPA 2006-02-03

This means the average farrang patient who visits the hospitals pays about 3,000 THB per year.

[naka]

Foreigners' illnesses make Thai hospitals healthy

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's private hospitals served 1.28 million foreigners in 2005, earning 33 billion baht ($846 million),

--DPA 2006-02-03

This means the average farrang patient who visits the hospitals pays about 3,000 THB per year.

No, it does not !

Naka.

[Koratbound]

Off the top of my head, I think the number is closer to 26,500 baht per farang per year.

KB

[Siripon]

The trend is making Thais less healthy as more and more Thai doctors, trained by the state, are lured to work for far higher salaries in the booming private hospitals catering to rich foreigners, leaving the provinces with a shortage of skilled medical personnel for your average Thai.

[lopburi3]

The trend is making Thais less healthy as more and more Thai doctors, trained by the state, are lured to work for far higher salaries in the booming private hospitals catering to rich foreigners, leaving the provinces with a shortage of skilled medical personnel for your average Thai.

That is way too simple. There has always been a shortage of doctors in underdeveloped regions of Thailand (as is the case elsewhere) and private hospitals are nothing new. For the most part these hospitals serve Thai patients and will continue to do so. Believe it or not there are many Thai who are just as rich as those "rich foreigners" you talk about. And these people are what make or break private hospitals. Now there may well be a new tier of private hospitals emerging that can charge even higher prices and attract "rich foreigners" but the fact is that now most of the foreigners are not exactly from the rich countries (Bangladesh, India, other SEA countries) are probably the largest users. The positive aspects (state of the art equipment/training/education) should not be overlooked. And these do filter down. I sure do not see Thailand having international medical standards as negative for anyone.

[chownah]

Am I the only one that thinks that 1.28 million foreigners is one heck of a lot of sick people? Can this be right?

[lopburi3]

Am I the only one that thinks that 1.28 million foreigners is one heck of a lot of sick people? Can this be right?

Yes? We are a sickly lot. Bumrungrad alone treated over 350,000 last year.

[kurgen]

Not all are sick, many are just vain.

Plastic surgery must be quite a high percentage of the numbers recorded.

[Greer]

Hi guys - if it was 33 billion, then that is 33,000,000,000 (using the American version of the word) and divide this by the 1.28 million which is 1,280,000 and the answer on my calculator is THB25,781.25 per customer.

Averages are of course completely misleading as a lot of this income will have been from operations of one sort or another - there is a lot of medical tourism going on now, and much of it from countries such as the UK where there are incredibly long waiting lists for anything not life-threatening. So not only plastic surgery, but anything that the medical system deems one can put up with if one must - including hip-replacements and the like.

Some people decide they will simply combine the necessary repair work with a recuperative holiday in an exotic and interesting country. A UK based friend of a mate of mine here in BKK had surgery here and raved about the hospital treatment, and pre- and post-care!

I say "Well done!" to the local medical profession...

[Siripon]

The trend is making Thais less healthy as more and more Thai doctors, trained by the state, are lured to work for far higher salaries in the booming private hospitals catering to rich foreigners, leaving the provinces with a shortage of skilled medical personnel for your average Thai.

That is way too simple. There has always been a shortage of doctors in underdeveloped regions of Thailand (as is the case elsewhere) and private hospitals are nothing new. For the most part these hospitals serve Thai patients and will continue to do so. Believe it or not there are many Thai who are just as rich as those "rich foreigners" you talk about. And these people are what make or break private hospitals. Now there may well be a new tier of private hospitals emerging that can charge even higher prices and attract "rich foreigners" but the fact is that now most of the foreigners are not exactly from the rich countries (Bangladesh, India, other SEA countries) are probably the largest users. The positive aspects (state of the art equipment/training/education) should not be overlooked. And these do filter down. I sure do not see Thailand having international medical standards as negative for anyone.

The anticipated boom in foreign patients is aimed at Japanese, Arabs fed up with USA visa rules, well-off Asians, Americans and Europeans. Bamrungrad hospital has translators of over 20 languages. The new Philips cancer detection equipment now in use in some hospitals costs 100,000 baht per treatment, journalists covering the launch got vouchers for 10,000 baht, unfortunately they have to find the other 90,000 baht themselves!

It's true there's always been a shortage of doctors in the provinces but this trend to cater to the rich can only exacerbate the problem, a brain drain rather than a trickle down.

Yasothon province is considering using its own local budget to train local personnel to become doctors and remain in the province rather than flee to more lucrative pastures.

[Potato]

Does this mean that there could be work for experienced european

chefs in these farrang hospitals,surely the western patients would

benefit from eating food they can relate to ??