Medical care looks east

Boonbenja Nitjanan, 58, a resident of Klong Dan in Samut Prakan, is a happy man. A long-time believer in the efficiency of medical school hospitals over local public health facilities, he would have to rise before 4 and take a day off work to travel to either Chulalongkorn or Ramathibodi hospitals to seek treatment. 
Today, he gets up at the normal time and does a full day’s work before taking a leisurely 10-minute drive to Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital in Bang Pla district.
“It’s great. I don’t have to face those awful traffic jams anymore,” says the 58-year-old, as he waits for the doctor at the special evening clinic. And even though he has to pay a little more for the specialist service, he figures it’s worth it compared to the time he would have wasted on the road. 

 

Located in the heart of the Eastern province’s industrial zone, home to factories and hundreds of thousands of low-income workers, the new hospital is on Leabklongsongnam Suvarnabhumi Road in Bang Pla sub-district, about 10 kilometres from Bangna-Trat Road. It’s part of the Chakri Naruebodindra Medical Institute – CNMI for short – and is run by the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University.
Prof Piyamitr Sritara, the faculty’s dean and president of the Ramathibodi Foundation, says the CNMI was initiated by His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej to provide health care services to workers and residents of the industrial sprawl east of Bangkok, which is mainly served by private hospitals that few of the residents can afford. 

 

Located on 319 rai, the 460-bed Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital officially opened on December 25. It expects to receive a million outpatient visits and 17,000 inpatient admissions per year and will significantly reduce the pressure on Ramathibodi Hospital, which is today struggling to cope with a annual caseload of some two million patients. When it is fully up and running in 2021, the CNMI will also be the new campus of Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine, complete with a medical research centre, nursing school and two specialist medical science programmes – paramedic and communication disorders – becoming the only medical school in the country to offer such training. 
“The CNMI is a project that received great kindness from the late King, who granted the institute its name. This comes from the full title of the late monarch. Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presided over the official opening late last year,” says Prof Piyamitr adds. 
The hospital currently operates outpatient clinics during the normal hours, special clinics after working hours, an emergency care department and inpatient wards with capacity of 50 beds and 15 beds in the ICU. When in full operation, it will have more than 500 beds spread over every unit. 

 

“We will be running fuller operations in May and be able to undertake complicated surgery and deliver babies in June. Right now, we have about 200 outpatient consultations a day,” says Dr Pairoj Boonkongchuen, the hospital’s director. 
“There are no public hospitals in this province that can do complicated surgery like heart surgery and coronary catheterisation. We will also be offering standardised emergency care services such as upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, bronchoscopy, hemodialysis and medical care at the accident and emergency centre, which can transfer patients in need of more complex treatment to Ramathibodi Hospital in Phya Thai,” he adds. 
“Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital has developed its own integrated care model with a patient-centric approach that brings together doctors from different fields in real time. As a result, patients don’t have to make several hospital visits. This approach benefits patients with diabetes who are also afflicted with other conditions such as kidney failure, coronary heart disease, and ischemic stroke, for example. We also have nutritionists on hand to provide dietary advice.”

 

The rehabilitation ward is equipped with advanced tools including a gait training robot and hydrotherapy. Dr Thanit Veerapong,  a rehabilitation lecturer, says that the robot is a high-end technology aide worth Bt18 million and highly efficient in helping patients walk.
“This robot is priceless is getting a patient to stand and walk. A 30-minute session helps the patient walk 800 steps while with a physical therapist, it no more than 30 steps,” he enthuses.
“Since opening, we’ve been using the robot to treat four to five patients a day, one of them a man who had a stroke and is now able to walk again.”
The hydrotherapy pool is also in constant use and has a therapist on hand to help patients get the most out of it. Both services are much cheaper than in private hospitals, with the gait training costing Bt800 for a 30-minute session and hydrotherapy Bt600. 
The CNMI is expected to be fully operational in 2021 when it will also incorporate the medical faculty. The goal is to produce 212 medical graduates, 250 nursing science graduates and 50 graduates from the communication disorders programme every year.
“We have to run the hospital at a certain level so that medical students can get the practice they need,” Prof Piyamitr explains.
The CNMI will also be home to the Queen Sirikit Research and Learning Centre, an operations and research building, a recreational facility, a cluster of residence halls, and a car park. 

 

The Queen Sirikit Research Centre will focus on producing medical and other health-science staff to serve local communities through a competency based curriculum. The centre will feature study rooms and conference rooms, a library, a modern laboratory for student work, an advanced resuscitation lab, a mockup patient ward and a research laboratory.
To achieve its aim of knowledge-based medicine and care, CNMI intends to be model for medical services as well as for education of and practice by newly trained medical staff. A new curriculum for medical students will also be available and offer more elective subjects from which to choose instead of the current practice of one platform for all. 
“We will have training in research, in running a hospital as well as in medical engineering. We also provide high-end classrooms and a research centre. Both lectures and students will live here together so they will have more opportunity to support each other instead of meeting only in the classroom. Our aim is to make it a learning place that can produce agents of change through our supportive curriculum and facilities,” says Dr Piyamitr.
The Recreation Building will allow students to work on their interests and refine their studies through teamwork and leadership performances. It will also house a community hall, which will serve as an activity centre for local residents and strengthen engagement with the neighbourhood.
In addition, the CNMI will refine and strengthen logistics and supply chain management by ensuring competency and efficiency at every step of the process.
With a required total investment of more than Bt13 billion, the CNMI still requires more funding to support purchases for diagnostic, monitoring and treatment equipment such as video bronchoscopes and digital radiography systems. These systems require a budget of Bt1.4 billion.
Punsiree Kunakornpaiboonsiri, managing director of the Ramathibodi Foundation, says it has been raising some Bt1 billion every year and this year is aiming to raise enough to help both Ramathibodi hospitals.
As usual, this will come from private donations as well as various activities and promotions organised during the year. These include two new TV commercials featuring Thongchai “Bird” McIntyre, Sukrit “Bie” Wisetkaew, Ann Thongprasom, Akapan “Om” Namatra, and Fonthip “Pooklook” Watcharatrakul, and the “Happy Give Day: Celebrating Birthdays by Saving Millions of Lives" activity that will be launched on May 4 at the BTS activity space in front of Siam Square One.
Original works of art created for the "Thai Thai" collection by ML Chiratorn "Kru Toh" Chirapravati, Somnuek "Kru Parn" Klangnok, and sibling illustrators Pattreeda "Pang" and Nualtong "Nual" Prasarnthong will also go on sale later in the year, as will exclusive wedding gifts designed by some of Thailand's top designers.

HELP A LITTLE

Donations can be made through:

- Siam Commercial Bank, Ramathibodi branch, current account number 026-3-05216-3;
- Bangkok Bank, Somdech Phra Debaratana Medical Center branch, current account number 090-3-50015-5.
- For more information, contact the Ramathibodi Foundation, 270 Rama VI Road, Rajthewi, Bangkok 10400, call (02) 201 1111 or visit www.RamaFoundation.or.th.