Siriraj Hospital will launch its first Geriatric Medicine Centre in Samut Sakhon to cater for the elderly, as the number of senior citizens is now rising by over one million people a year.
Apichat Asavamongkolkul, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, said Thailand has become an aged-society and soon will enter the status of super-aged society, where the ratio of citizens aged above 65 is over 20%. The WHO encourages such countries to provide geriatric care and promote self-care interventions for the health and well-being of senior citizens.
Dr Apichat said the healthcare system must mobilise towards the well-being of the elderly, not just the care of individuals. "By the end of this year, Siriraj Hospital will launch its geriatric care centre in Samut Sakhon, a model which will be adopted by the Public Health Ministry in regional cities," said Dr Apichat.
Dr Prasert Assantachai, professor at the Preventive and Social Medicine department of Siriraj Hospital, said 2023 marks the first year in which the number of elderly is increasing more than one million a year. The trend of an increasing elderly population will continue for the next 20 years, he said.
He said most ailments found among old people are bone and muscle diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Another challenge for an aged society, he said, is the healthcare scheme could be overburdened by the healthcare costs for an increasing number of old people. He suggested the government adopt the idea of long-term care insurance which will subsidise the cost of healthcare among senior citizens.
Dr Visit Vamvanij, director of Siriraj Hospital, said Siriraj would launch more projects supporting healthy ageing. It has researched health screening, intermediate care in the community and a senior citizens' universal health database.