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Published on February 29, 2008

King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital is planning to invest Bt11 billion in a brand-new state-of-the-art medical service complex that will be completed in 2015.

Dr Adisorn Patradul, director of the 93-year-old hospital, which is part of the Thai Red Cross Society and Chulalongkorn University, said the investment would be paid for by the hospital's own funds, a state budget, plus donations.

A total of 16 new buildings, covering nearly 200,000 square metres, would replace the 15 old buildings, which would be demolished from this year.

Adisorn said the blueprint included a 29-storey centre of medical excellence, which would focus on complicated diseases often referred to medical school hospitals like Chulalongkorn.

In addition, there would be specialist centres for heart, brain, kidney, liver and spine ailments as well as centres for organ transplants and stem cell and tissue research.

Overall, the construction cost is estimated to be Bt6.5 billion while the rest will be invested in state-of-the-art medical, IT and other systems.

Hospital deputy director Dr Dhiraphongs Charoenvidhaya said other new buildings would be used to house doctors, nurses and other staff as well as for administration and support services.

Assistant director Dr Vichai Benjacholamas said the new complex was also expected to boost the hospital's income, especially from middle-class and well-off patients, so that more poor patients could be subsidised.

"Last year, our losses amounted to more than Bt300 million after providing services to about 1.2 million patients. Basically, we serve three groups of patients."

"The first group consists of those who use the Bt30 or free universal health cards issued by the government as well as those who use social security cards. We receive relatively small amounts from these patients, which are the majority.

"The second group consists of civil servants and state enterprise employees, and the government pays slightly more for them, but our expenses are still not fully accounted for. For example, we need to invest an annual Bt100-200 million in new equipment.

"The third group of patients that we aim to charge more, are those who use private insurance schemes and those who can afford to pay expensive fees," Vichai said.

Adisorn said Chula also aimed to be a leading centre of medical excellence in Asean by 2012.

"We have one of the country's largest faculties of medicine with more than 400 lecturers plus 1,000 doctors and trainees practising at the hospital.

"In terms of R&D, we also have a relatively high ratio of academic papers published per lecturer when compared to other medical schools in Thailand.

"Our areas of excellence include research on stem cells, tissue, bird flu, breast cancer and surgery. For instance, our new training centre for surgeons which will be opened next year will be the largest of its kind in Asia with workshop facilities for training up to 50 surgeons simultaneously. Usually, we have people from Japan, Korea, Malaysia or Singapore coming to our training centre."

The Nation