Thailand’s wellness and medical sector is already phenomenon level; all it needs is to develop skilled medical professionals with language capabilities, said Timothy Lertsmitivanta, the chief executive officer of Thonburi Wellbeing Co Ltd.
“Thailand is very well known for hospitality, and it has established a medical hub in Asia and is leading the way in Southeast Asia,” he said. “We already have strength in hospitality tourism and wellness.”
Mr Timothy made the comments on Thursday at the “Thailand’s Road To Wellness Hub” virtual conference hosted by the Bangkok Post in conjunction with Thonburi Healthcare Group and The Aspen Tree.
He added that one of the country’s weaknesses is a shortage of medical professionals and mental health professionals with international language skills. “We need to re-emphasise international languages such as English, Chinese, Japanese and others throughout Thailand as a whole, not just in urban areas,” he said.
As Thailand increasingly becomes a wellness hub, it is also experiencing a “brain drain”, Mr Timothy said. “We are sending people to Singapore, China and the Middle East,” he said.
He said Thailand’s potential to become a hub for rehabilitation programmes or a destination for retirement programmes is being impeded by a shortage of medical and mental health professionals, particularly those with international language skills.
To address the problem, he said: “Thailand must grant work permits for these specific professionals in areas where there are insufficient Thai professionals with language capabilities” to meet the needs of international customers.
Allowing medical professionals from various industries to visit Thailand will assist with knowledge transfer, he said.
This would accelerate the advancement of Thailand’s medical sector and upskill professionals across the board, Mr Timothy said. This could be accomplished, he said, through government-private sector collaboration, which would result in success, as it did during Covid-19.
Mr Timothy said during the Covid crisis, the government and hospitals had the same goal, which was to combat the pandemic, and that this time “we have one goal” to make Thailand an international wellness and medical hub.
If we “work together and integrate all of our strengths”, such goals would be achievable, he said.