Health officials check Nonthaburi home with over 81 psychiatric patients on Oct 8
Residents at a Nonthaburi nursing home alleged chaining and assaults as officials investigated reports of psychiatric care without specialist staff.
- Health officials inspected the Baan Sermsuk Nursing Home in Nonthaburi after reports it was housing over 81 psychiatric patients without doctors or specialist staff.
- The facility was licensed as an elderly care center, but its services did not match its stated purpose, prompting the investigation.
- During the inspection, residents made distress signals from windows, alleging they had been chained, physically assaulted, and denied necessary medication by staff.
- The check is part of a wider, nationwide inspection of approximately 1,200 care facilities prompted by a separate case involving abuse and licensing breaches in Kanchanaburi.
Thailand’s Department of Health Service Support (DHSS), under the Public Health Ministry, sent officials to inspect Baan Sermsuk Nursing Home in Nonthaburi on October 8, 2026, following reports that the facility was accommodating more than 81 psychiatric patients without doctors or specialist staff.
Baan Sermsuk, on Soi Rewadee 22, had applied to operate as an elderly care centre, but its services reportedly did not match the purpose stated in its application.
The Nonthaburi inspection followed a separate Kanchanaburi care-home case involving abuse allegations and confirmed licensing breaches.
Baan Sermsuk resident signals for help from third floor
While reporters waited for DHSS officials to arrive at Baan Sermsuk, a resident opened a third-floor window facing the road and extended a hand outside, making a distress signal to request help.
The third-floor resident at Baan Sermsuk told reporters their parents had sent them to the home a month earlier for treatment because of mood swings.
The resident who spoke from Baan Sermsuk’s third floor alleged that they had been restrained and chained on their first day, but said they had never been physically assaulted. The psychiatric medication they were taking was their own and had not been supplied by the home, the resident said.
Second-floor resident alleges assaults and lack of medication
A second resident at Baan Sermsuk opened a window in a room at the far end of the second floor facing the road and called for help. The resident said they had lived there since 2023 and asked reporters to contact their parents in Ang Thong so they could come and look after them.
The second-floor resident at Baan Sermsuk alleged that staff had chained and beaten him, including kicking him around the eye and leaving a scar. Reporters said they could see what appeared to be bruising around the resident’s eye.
According to the resident speaking from Baan Sermsuk’s second floor, no medication was provided when his diabetes worsened. The resident said the medicine he took came from his parents, although the home provided three meals a day.
The second-floor resident at Baan Sermsuk also claimed that nobody was allowed to leave the premises and that the five or six staff members inside had instructed all patients not to speak to reporters.
As residents described alleged mistreatment, another person inside Baan Sermsuk called from a different room, “It happens to everyone,” before closing the window, reporters said.
Officers from Mueang Nonthaburi Police Station were also at Baan Sermsuk to observe the situation and manage traffic while reporters awaited the health officials.
Kanchanaburi case prompts checks on about 1,200 care homes
The Public Health Ministry said on October 7 that the Kanchanaburi case had prompted orders to inspect about 1,200 care facilities nationwide within two months.
The DHSS on Wednesday revoked the Tha Muang home’s business and operator licences after inspectors found more than 100 beds against an authorised 50 and almost 90 psychiatric patients receiving unauthorised services. The Public Health Ministry said unlawful-confinement allegations were a separate criminal matter.
