For one of our class trips, we visited Khon Kaen Regional Hospital. We were in the trauma care building for most of the visit. Before having a tour of the hospital, one of the staff gave a lecture about the trauma care system and road accidents in Khon Kaen. We learned that most traffic accidents here are caused by motor-vehicles. Motor-vehicle accidents are high here because one-third of those who drive do not wear their helmets, or oftentimes the driver is involved in illegal road racing. Even among other Asian countries, Thailand takes the lead in motor-vehicle accidents
In this hospital, there are two thousand doctors and one hundred beds. Therefore, there are two doctors per bed. The staff said that given national initiatives, Thailand is doing really well in “post-crash care”. However, the country is not doing well in “road safety management”. The hospital has a command control center and a system that is connected to most of their ambulances. If the ambulance needs to send information to the doctors for instance, the EMTs can contact and show doctors via a computer. They actually have different types of ambulances to meet the population’s needs. There are basic, intermediate, and advanced ambulances. The basic ambulances are stationed in the community and it has basic equipment. As for the advanced ambulances, these are fully equipped and a nurse or a doctor are present.
Moreover, in rural areas, the hospital uses a dual system for emergencies. This means that both basic and advanced ambulances will be called. Since people in the rural areas are further from the main hospital, the basic ambulance will come first to assess the patient and then the advanced ambulance will come later. What’s more – the ambulance services are free of charge. The lecture was informative and I was able to see how the hospital operates.
