PHUKET'S private hospitals have been critical in providing medical care for residents and tourists as public facilities remain understaffed and overstretched.

Patong Hospital especially has had chronic problems in finding staff because the small facility is operating on a budget not sufficient to serve the popular tourist town.

Budgets are allocated based on official population figures, which in a resort destination like Patong are far below the actual numbers of people living and visiting there.

The Ministry of Public Health appears to have helped alleviate the problem with news that more medical staff will be added to Patong Hospital in April.

Even so, it is certain that patients who can afford it will continue to be moved to private facilities to ease its burden.

Following reports of private hospitals shutting down units in Bangkok due to a lack of patients to care for, Phuketwan did a health checkup on Phuket's private hospitals.

All three are reporting some shift by patients to lower-cost facilities, but, so far, the prognosis is good.

Mission, Bangkok Hospital Phuket and Phuket International Hospital have all expanded and upgraded their facilities in the past few years, and recent visits to the hospitals by Phuketwan reporters show that they are all doing a bustling 'trade', and each is continuing with plans to further expand or upgrade services.



Number of beds: 85
Staff: 230 total including 15 full-time and 44 part-time physicians
Open since: 1940

What the management says: So far this year, we have seen no difference in patient numbers from last year. Mission Hospital's focus is providing low-cost care to local Phuket residents. We have some foreign patients, but a small amount, only about 10 percent. We have been doing okay in the economic downturn. Most of our patients are middle class people, perhaps there are some who used to go to other private hospitals and now come here, particularly for health checkups because our price is very reasonable.
We have kept all our staff and have not closed any units at the hospital. We have set up a fund to help our staff through the downturn, providing each with 1000 baht a month since May 2008. We do this instead of giving bonuses, which we cannot do because we are a foundation. We have increased staff in the outpatient department to handle cases covered by social insurance. Last year, we had to stop taking more patients through the social insurance plan because we do not have enough staff to do this and still maintain our standards.
Treatment costs remain the same as last year. We have new private patient rooms on the fourth floor that we charge a higher price for than other rooms. We are also adding a new vegetarian canteen building in front of the hospital to serve not only hospital patients and staff, but to sell healthy food to people outside the hospital.

Comment by Suchitra Samermit, Chief Operating Officer



Number of beds: Nearly 200
Staff: 700 including 56 full-time physicians and 75 consulting physicians
Open since: 1995

What the management says: The economic situation has not affected our hospital as we have good management and cost control. We have had a decrease in foreign patients, but most of our patients are Thai, more than 80 percent. In the last half of 2008 we were down by 20 percent from the previous year. Currently, we are at about 70 percent of capacity. We are building new rooms to offer more convenience, safety and high technology with a nurse call system, entertainment, high speed internet, which will be available for the same price as existing rooms.
Bangkok Phuket this year has a goal to further improve our quality and prepare to earn a Joint Commission International healthcare standards accreditation (JCIA). We are planning to increase our facilities including emergency services and patient CCU (heart operation) rooms, and will also have mobile ICU to transfer patients. As well, we are adding more operating rooms for brain surgery cases. In total, 100 million baht is being invested to expand rooms and equipment.

Comment by Kongkiat Kespechara, Director



Number of beds: 151
Staff: 550 total, including 35 full-time physicians
Open since: 1978

What the management says: Our patient numbers and revenue have remained steady over the past year, with January showing an increase in revenue over the previous year. For the year ahead, I don't think anyone can tell. Phuket is a tourist destination and our business depends on that industry. Our marketing efforts are focused on taking good care of our patients and building trust in our hospital. Some Thai patients will start to go to government hospitals because they can use these for free if they are covered under social security. But at the same time, we are gaining patients from higher-cost facilities. There are plans to further expand the hospital, but these are on hold for the moment as we see how the economy fares.
This is a good time to invest in our staff and systems. We are working with a major Korean software company that specialises in hospital systems. We will start to use the new software next year, which should help improve our management and service. We are also converting all of our X-ray equipment to be digital and will phase out film X-rays by the end of this year. All of these things should help us serve our patients better, and encourage them to return to our hospital.

Comment by Piyarat Kulwanich, Marketing Manager

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