Siriraj Hospital has run out of intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients, according to Dr Nithiphat Chiarakun, head of the respiratory disease and tuberculosis division at the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital.
Dr Nithiphat posted on Facebook on Thursday that his team had to delay accepting at least five Covid-19 patients due to the shortage of ICU beds while one patient whose condition started to improve was transferred from the ICU unit to make room for another whose symptoms worsened.
According to Dr Nithiphat, the shortage of beds for the Covid-19 patients at the hospital has been critical for a week and other hospitals are likely to be in a dire situation too. The news comes amid concerns the health system is coming under severe strain.
He said that the risk of Covid-19 will remain if people refuse to stay at home and added that office workers eating together is a major cause of virus transmission at workplaces.
Meanwhile, Chao Meekhuad, former spokesman of the Democrat Party, on Thursday called on the government to tackle bed shortages.
Mr Chao said he had been approached by a community in Bangkok's Huai Kwang area to help find beds for 20 people.
He said that one family in Ruamjai Phibul community lost two people, a mother and a daughter.
The infected mother died on Monday and the daughter died two days later.
According to Mr Chao, the daughter did not receive the Covid-19 test even though she was in close contact with a Covid sufferer, as the hospital claimed it did not have the testing solution.
"Is this a proper way to treat a person who is at-risk and critically?" he wrote.
