The hospital beds in state hospitals for Covid patients in critical condition are fully occupied. The last twenty beds in Bangkok are reserved for emergencies.
Director General Somsak Akksilp of the Department of Medical Services yesterday sounded the alarm about the availability of beds for infected patients in hospitals that have life-saving equipment. For example, more and more Covid-19 patients need ventilators to stay alive.
The shortage of hospital beds is especially worrying because more and more patients are recovering in the yellow and red groups, says Somsak. Patients in the yellow group are those with moderate symptoms, who are at risk of progressing to a serious condition. Patients in the red group already have severe symptoms.
On Monday, all 409 hospital beds for patients with severe symptoms were fully occupied by Covid-19 patients in critical condition. The last 20 beds are reserved for patients in urgent need of surgery or other serious medical interventions. Only about 300 hospital beds are still available for patients in the yellow group, as 3.937 other beds are already occupied.
Deputy Dean Adune Ratanawichitrasin of the Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital warns on Facebook that the Covid-19 outbreak in Bangkok has reached a critical point. Hospitals are inundated with large numbers of Covid-19 patients where the source of infection cannot be clearly identified, indicating that the virus has entered many communities.
Source: Bangkok Post
If other countries had gained experience with the treatment and IC admissions of people infected with Covid, the government would of course have taken measures long ago.
I wonder what the hell they did there.
Calling up 3000 people for a vaccination and only having 500 doses.
The last 20 beds are reserved in Bangkok for emergencies.
And with the Indian variant coming up, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Indian scenes, people who have to lie in the hallway and a shortage of ventilators.
It's to shame you to death.
It's not just to embarrass you to death (the Thai authorities of course), it's also to make it clear to stay away from Thailand. If you don't have a spouse and/or offspring there, look for a holiday in Europe. The numbers of infections, measured in terms of population numbers, are absolutely not alarming. On the contrary. Thailand would indeed do well to learn from other countries in terms of dealing with Covid19 patients as well as with vaccination programs. But people there don't understand that a wheel is round, so they find out for themselves. Against damage and disgrace, but they probably don't want to know that, so cover it up.
I have the strong impression that there is no shortage of beds at all, but that the so-called shortage can be traced back to the insurance policy in Thailand.
People who fall under the 30 Baht scheme or under SSO have been assigned a hospital. In all cases, that is the way to go. If you go somewhere else (except in emergencies) you have to pay the bill yourself. For Covid, the government pays a maximum budget per case in such cases. You have to adjust the remainder yourself and, if you go to a private hospital, it will soon run into the hundreds of thousands of Bahts. The poor and also the average Thai citizen does not do that. The Covid beds in the private hospitals (immediately an almost monopile position for BDMS) are in practice only occupied by the rich and are partly empty. Most Covid cases can currently be found among the poor and average Thais: employees of companies and factories and also prisoners.
If your own hospital no longer has a bed left in the ICU and you do not want to go to a hospital where you have to pay a significant part of the bill yourself, it is suddenly said that there are not enough beds. But those beds are available but are 'too expensive'.