Thais injured in the southern bomb blasts in Hat Yai and Yala crowded hospital emergency care rooms yesterday _ all of them with a government guarantee of free treatment.
The Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel and shopping mall in Hat Yai is sealed off to allow bomb disposal and forensic officers to go about their work after Saturday’s blast in the underground car park. THITI WANNAMONTHA
Yesterday was the first day in which a new scheme granting free emergency care to all patients with a Thai ID card took effect nationwide.
While the scheme marked its first day in Bangkok quietly, with many hospital A&E rooms reporting steady flows of patients, in the South _ where the government also specifically guaranteed free emergency care to anyone hit by the bomb blasts _ it was a different story.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday ordered the Public Health Ministry to take people injured in the bomb blasts in Yala and Hat Yai district of Songkhla as emergency patients under the universal health insurance system.
Fourteen people were killed and hundreds hurt in three explosions in Yala's downtown area, and a blaze at Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel and shopping mall in Songkhla's Hat Yai district, on Saturday.
The changes to emergency care are part of the government's plan to integrate health services from the three national healthcare schemes _ the civil services medical benefits scheme, the social security fund, and the universal healthcare coverage (gold card) scheme.
Now, every patient who has a Thai national identification card can enter any hospital, including private hospitals, to receive free emergency treatment, without condition.
In Yala, emergency care rooms were busy treating people injured in the blasts.
The blasts killed 11 people, eight of whom died at the scene. Another three died later at hospital.
About 100 people were injured, including 31 people who were were hospitalised, 10 of them in a serious condition.
A ranger volunteer, Suwit Chayna, who sustained burns to 100% of his body, was sent to Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok yesterday.
In Hat Yai, three people were killed in the hotel blaze, and more than 350 injured. Of these, 133 were still being treated in hospital yesterday.
Somchai Nichpanit, deputy permanent secretary of health, said the ministry has opened a centre to coordinate free treatment in emergency cases, to monitor the effect of the new policy at more than 800 hospitals under its supervision across the country.
Prachakvit Lebnak, deputy secretary general to the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand, said many people called the 1169 hotline yesterday, asking about the definition of what constituted "emergency" cases.
A staff member of the private Paolo Memorial Hospital on Phahon Yothin Road said the hospital had yet to notify staff about the new scheme.
"Providing treatment first and talking about payment later is what my friends and I have been talking about in recent days," he said.
He was stationed at the hospital's entrance to receive any emergency case, but as of 3pm yesterday, had received only one _ someone who suffered a cut in a fight. The teenage patient was sent to the emergency room for suturing before being sent home.
The case was not considered critical so he was treated under the normal gold card scheme.
A Deja Hospital staff member said the hospital was willing to comply with the scheme, but had to make sure that patients seeking emergency care hold Thai citizenship.
The patient is asked to fill out a form which will be sent to the National Health Security Office for reimbursement.
For emergency accidents, the state will pay the hospital up to 1,000 baht. If the cost exceeds that amount, the hospital will be responsible for the rest.