Thailand - Thai hospital builds US$294 MIL private facility

The country’s renowned Siriraj Hospital will officially open its private facility, Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital (SiPH) on April 26, in collaboration with private sector for modern medical ICT.

SiPH’s Director, Associate Professor Dr Pradit Panchavinnin said the new hospital aims to generate its own income without financial aid from the government.

“The income generated will be contributed to the faculty of medicine of Siriraj Hospital for medical education,” he said.

Siriraj Hospital, one of the country’s oldest public and teaching hospitals, is subsidised by the government to the tune of about ฿1.5 billion (US$49 million) per year, as it has to bear the cost derived from general patient treatments, which results in an operating loss amounting to 10 per cent of income.

With an initial investment of ฿7 billion (US$ 228.8 million) for building construction and about ฿2 billion (US$ 65.4 million) for equipment, the hospital is targeted to break even in three years. It then aims to make earnings for another five to six years to cover its overall investment cost, and make profit within eight or nine years for funding the operation of Siriraj Hospital.

“The new hospital will serve as an alternative quality healthcare service for patients with the ability to pay, by using our strong points of high-quality treatment, experienced doctors and medical excellence to attract new patients,” Panchavinnin said.

He added that service fees would be higher than those offered at Siriraj Hospital, but as much as 20-25 per cent lower than at other private hospitals. Treatment services will cover both general and ocmplicated diseases.

At SiPH, the core network developed in collaboration with Cisco will be enabled by Borderless Network Architecture to enhance the use of ICT in medical communications and information sharing to diagnose and treat patients. The network will facilitate the applications that utilize Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, wireless and video.

The innovation and solutions that will be implemented at SiPH will allow healthcare providers to be more productive and efficient, with direct impact on the number of lives saved. Doctors will be able to utilize these solutions for remote consultations with subject matter experts while patients will have access to services like news, entertainment, information and dining options by their bed-side, extending the care and efficiency provided by the hospital, said Dr Tatchapol Poshyanonda, managing director for Cisco in Thailand.

The SiPH will initially provide 284 inpatient rooms, 177 outpatient rooms, 17 operating theatres and 61 intensive-care units, as well as a parking lot for about 1,000 cars.

In the first phase, about 30 per cent of SiPH’s space, covering 4.8 hectares in a 14-floor building, will be opened for service in April.

Under Phase II, the hospital will be equipped with state-of-the-art medical and information-technology equipment such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines and linacs (linear particle accelerators), the latest radiation technology for precise cancer treatment in all parts of the body.

Its five specialised clinics will cover cancer, cardiopathia, orthopaedic, gastroenterology and nephropathy treatment.

SiPH will share the services of the 800 doctors at Siriraj Hospital, but this will not affect normal working hours at the main hospital. About 256 nurses will be transferred from Siriraj Hospital in the initial phase. The new hospital will also recruit its own staffs.

Thanya Kunakornpaiboonsiri

futuregov.asia

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