Tak hospital in red as migrant patient numbers soar

Umphang Hospital gets B20m lifeline as more people flee conflict in Myanmar

The Ministry of Public Health has sent 20 million baht to Umphang Hospital in Tak province to help it cover the increased costs of treating the rising number of migrants fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Myanmar.

The hospital has been facing an increase in operating costs, putting a strain on liquidity and resulting in a deficit of 40 million baht, said Dr Opas Kankawinpong, the ministry’s permanent secretary.

“I have assigned officials to investigate if other local hospitals along the Thai-Myanmar border are facing the same situation as Umphang Hospital and for them to draw up solutions,” he said on Friday.

Umphang Hospital is listed under the “One Province One Hospital” scheme, under which hospitals in each health district share medical staff, budgets and resources to support one another.

Dr Worawit Tantiwattanasap, the director of Umphang Hospital, said on Thursday that this was the first year in three decades that the hospital has faced such a large deficit resulting from treatment for migrant patients from Myanmar.

One-quarter of migrant inpatients and half of migrant outpatients cannot afford medical bills, he added.

Many patients have been admitted to hospital because of the conflict in the border town of Kawkareik in Karen state and the ongoing malaria outbreak, said Dr Worawit.

As well, he said, more migrants have been crossing the border to give birth to their children as conditions at hospitals in Myanmar have deteriorated since the military coup two years ago.

Umphang Hospital has set up a community isolation programme in Myanmar in an effort to slow down migration to Thailand. However, the operating cost of the programme cannot be reimbursed from the public health ministry, resulting in a deficit in the hospital’s budget.