Cost of Covid-19 treatment for all Thais borne by government, say key agencies
All Thais who contract Covid-19 would receive free treatment, the concerned state agencies assured on Thursday.
The assurance was given by National Health Security Office (NHSO) secretary-general Jaded Thammathataree, Social Security Office secretary-general Thossaphol Kritwongwiman and Comptroller-General's Department director-general Praphas Khong-Iad during the live programme “NBT fight against Covid-19” hosted by the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand on Thursday.
Jaded said that the NHSO had asked all private hospitals who were capable of treating Covid-19 to bill the office for the cost of treatment instead of charging the patients.
The NHSO said it would reimburse the hospitals within two weeks of starting the treatment.
“The NHSO also has set aside a budget for civil servants who contract Covid-19 so they can receive free treatment at private hospitals. The office will disburse the money to the hospital within three days,” he added.
Thossaphol added that the Social Security Fund had enough resources to reimburse the hospitals that provided Covid-19 treatment to patients under the social security scheme. “If you see any hospitals demanding payment for Covid-19 treatment from the patients, please contact Social Security hotline at 1506, NHSO call centre at 1330, or the Comptroller-General's Department on tel. 02-270-6400,” he added.
During the program Dr Somsak Akksilp, director-general of the Department of Medical Services, added that currently there was no shortage of ICU rooms in the country but there were not enough medical professionals to treat patients in the ICUs.
“In Bangkok alone, 33 of 1,000 patients on average would need treatment in an ICU. The department is capable of building 10 new ICU beds within a week,” he said. “However, of those 10 new beds, only four would be available to treat the patients due to lack of certified medical professionals.
“The department is working to find additional personnel to treat ICU patients, but in the meantime people must protect themselves from the virus to slow down the infection rate and reduce the number of patients needing intensive care,” he added.