Thai Health Ministry urges ambulance safety measures

[webfact]

MOPH urges ambulance safety measures

BANGKOK, 18 May 2016 (NNT) – The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has expressed its concerns regarding the safety of patients and staff operating on ambulances for referring, urging all hospitals to uphold to MOPH’s announcement on road safety.

The MOPH Spokesman Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai has said regarding an accident to a crashed ambulance in Kanchanaburi on the night of 16 May 2016, stating that the incident was caused by heavy rain and flash flood. He revealed that the Minister of Public Health has urged all related agencies to aid in the assistance o the affected patients and staff.

He has said all hospitals are reminded to strictly uphold ambulance safety standards and the MOPH’s announcement regarding organizational standards on road safety.

All ambulance in service must receive checks for vehicle and safety standards, and drivers are required to undergo training courses and to drive within the legal speed at no more than 80 kilometers per hour on regular highway, or according to local laws, and to obey all traffic rules.

Ambulance drivers should change their shift every 150 kilometers or 2 hours, while hospitals should consider enrolling their vehicle in the insurance package which covers patients and operating officials, and to equip ambulances with GPS and webcam to enable the tracking and speed control system.

The general public and motorists are also asked to allow ambulances and emergency vehicles to pass over them when driving.


-- NNT 2016-05-18

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

Out here in the sticks we don't get any ambulances, only the "body snatchers" and their "standards" are quite shocking. They put you on an old pick-up bed if you got a bad accident and need to be sent to a hospital and they drive like Michael Schumacher on Steroids, they compete with other "body snatching" operations so they have to be first at the scene to be able to "snatch" you. Good advice is to check your personal belongings when you wake up in the hospital...

[ezzra]

Last year, I had a motorcycle accident where I needed to be taken to a hospital, the first car on the scenes

was the body snatchers pick up and ' he got the job ' so i was laid in the back of a pick up on a stretcher

and taken to a hospital of their choice,

Yes, it is high time that order will be restored to this business

where anyone can buy a van, fit it out with some weird sound siren and lights and call it an ambulance......

[Thechook]

Are there actually any ambulances in Thailand, how about actual paramedics? All you see is Somchia the mechanic, his rusty pickup with a rescue sticker on the back. An injured dying person is chucked in the back on top of old engine parts, fertilisers and is cared for by the prized rooster.

[gandalf12]

Are there actually any ambulances in Thailand, how about actual paramedics? All you see is Somchia the mechanic, his rusty pickup with a rescue sticker on the back. An injured dying person is chucked in the back on top of old engine parts, fertilisers and is cared for by the prized rooster.

The big hospitals have ambulances, not sure about small ones though, probably not

[kimamey]

Are there actually any ambulances in Thailand, how about actual paramedics? All you see is Somchia the mechanic, his rusty pickup with a rescue sticker on the back. An injured dying person is chucked in the back on top of old engine parts, fertilisers and is cared for by the prized rooster.

The big hospitals have ambulances, not sure about small ones though, probably not

I'm in Mahasarakham and there seem to be ambulances at the hospital which don't seem too bad from what I can see. I've seen the vehicles in the fire station but never seen one on the road. Most look like museum pieces.

I think there's just a messed up attitude here. Ambulances have to keep to the speed limit but police vehicles never hurry unless they're providing an escort in which case they put their lights on and drive like lunitics.

[CLW]

"The general public and motorists are also asked to allow ambulances and emergency vehicles to pass over them when driving."

So they don't have any law here that cars need to give way to emergency vehicles?

Or it just isn't known or enforced?

Every time I see an ambulance stuck in the traffic in Bangkok I pray to God that if I should have an accident I am close to a hospital.

When I asked my friend about this situation, they said, look, the drivers are trying to make space but there is no.

BS, no movement for an ambulance car. Some don't even hear the siren because the use headphones in the car.

And the Bangkok roads are narrow, yes, but where's space for motorcycle between the cars, if all 3 lanes work together there can be space for the ambulance car to pass.

Maybe there is something lost in translation but "asked" is not the right word if someone's life is in danger and the idiot in front of the ambulance is too busy with his smartphone to pull besides and let the ambulance pass.

Someday, If I should win the lottery or become millionaire I will donate an emergency helicopter or motorcycle, I swear.

https://goo.gl/images/MRRH

Edited May 18, 2016 by CLW

[cardinalblue]

They need a comprehensive EMS system coordinated by a gov agency for all the hospitals rescue vehicles and ambulNces to be controlled

Emergency medicine in the field is still third world quality and many lives are being lost because of it..

[CarolJadzia]

All this talk of driver hours and vehicle standards.

What about teaching the drivers proper advanced defensive driving skills in a real world environment in the first place?

[Lannig]

What's the status of these body snatchers anyway?

Does anyone know exactly?

Thai people always tell me that they're kind of charities financed by wealthy Chinese families. However many things tend to demonstrate that they operate based on a logic of money gains made when collecting corpses (not sure that even applies to people still alive too... so their interest might not even be to bring you to an hospital alive!)

[jerojero]

Yes many Ministries have urged many people on many things many times. Little effect.