Seriously-ill patients moved
First batch of critical patients arrive in Kanchanaburi along with Siriraj team
In the face of the looming floods, critically-ill patients in Bangkok are being transferred to medical facilities in the provinces to ensure their continued treatment.
Some seriously-ill patients from Siriraj Hospital have already arrived at the Polpayuhasena and Makarak hospitals in Kanchanaburi.
“A medical team from Siriraj Hospital has come to take care of the patients as well,” Kanchanaburi public-health chief Dr Paisal Dunkhum said yesterday, adding that the province’s Tha Muang Hospital had also opened its doors to patients from Bangkok.
Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said it was necessary that critical patients be moved to medical facilities in flood-free provinces.
“They may need oxygen anytime. Electricity and water services must be available at all times for their treatment,” he pointed out.
He said hospitals in the provinces had been told make at least 376 beds available, adding that once serious patients had been moved, Bangkok hospitals could then focus on patients in non-serious condition.
Some hospitals in Bangkok, including Bhumibol Hospital, are already submerged. Bhumibol Hospital has suspended its service until October 31 and will not be providing treatment beyond normal working hours until November 7.
However, the hospital still has many in-patients – several of them in critical condition – and the institution’s executives yesterday requested a supply of diesel for its generators so life-support devices can continue running in case of power blackouts.
“We are also worried that the flood might also damage medical devices needed for treating patients,” the hospital’s director Dr Chuphan Charnsamorn said.
Witthaya added that more than 100 mobile medical units were dispatched to flood-hit provinces every day, with at least 10 of them operating in Bangkok. The ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Paijit Warachit said so far 735,495 patient had been treated in these mobile medical units, 107,101 for mental problems.
“We found that 6,214 of the patients were depressed and up to 878 suicidal,” he said.
