'Occupational health centres badly needed'

As Thailand develops its industrial sector, the number of people suffering occupational illnesses such as pneumoconiosis, caused by chemical poisoning, is expected to rise.

Thailand has no specialised hospitals and lacks professional health workers to provide better treatment for patients or under-take in-depth research on the root causes of diseases.

The country also has a little data on the number of patients with serious occupational health problems.

Most patients do not know they have serious illnesses caused by occupational diseases. Some undergo treatment at general hospitals, which have only general physicians not trained in diagnosis of specific conditions caused by occupational poisoning.

Most occupational health problems are caused by small and medium-sized companies, which lack funds to invest in disease prevention.

The Social Security Fund has had to pay at least Bt1 billion in compensation for workers with occupational health problems.

To improve the healthcare system for occupational disease prevention and treatment, the Department of Disease Control's director-general, Dr Somchai Chakrabhand, said the government needed to invest at least Bt1 billion to establish special hospitals and institutes for surveillance and investigating the causes of work illnesses, and provide specialist carers.

"If workers do not receive appropriate diagnosis and care, they will become poor due to disease, which will lead to social instability," Somchai said.

In a bid to boost Thailand's capacity to develop health professionals who provide treatment to patients with occupational diseases, the Department of Disease Control recently signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment.

Under this cooperation, Thai medical workers will attend a training programme every year at Guangdong Hospital, which has experts on prevention, control and treatment for occupational diseases, especially in chemical poisoning.

Guangdong Hospital, established in 1959, currently has 335 professionals including physicians, nurses, toxicologists, and analytical chemists. The Chinese government gives it a US$2 million (Bt68 million) in funding each year.

The hospital has focused on surveillance and management of occupational health, diagnosis and treatment of occupational diseases. The hospital also investigates, treats and rescue people who have been poisoning or endured a nuclear accident.

Body check-ups and health monitoring for various kinds of workers are also key tasks at Guangdong Hospital.

To date, the hospital has rescued 3,000 people who have suffered serious poisoning and successfully treated people poisoned by chemical substances such as n-hexane, benzene, trichloroethene, organic tin and organic fluoride. These substances can cause fever, serious damage to skin and liver, and swollen superficial lymphonodes.