Location: Bangkok + Samut Sakhon, Thailand
Language: Thai
Duration: 00:04:56
Source: A24
Restriction: A24 Clients
Dateline: 28-01-2022
Storyline
Dr. Jadej Thammatacharee, Secretary-General of the National Health Security Office, revealed that telemedicine has become the new normal of the Thai medical field, especially after the success of coping with COVID infector management with the Home Isolation system. The service can be completed by zero-cost technology such as chat application which is famous among the citizens. However, it helps decrease much of the medical services cost. Whilst, Dr. Pornthep Pongtawigon, Director of Banphaeo General Hospital, said that some of the patients might be familiar with the services where they could see doctors face-to-face but with many hospitals coming together to promote it, telemedicine can become the new stream except for patients with critical syndromes, they must be referred to the hospital, and not only receive online consultations.
Shotlists
– (Soundbite) Dr. Jadej Thammatacharee – Secretary-General of National Health Security Office;
“We had been promoting telemedicine for a while to have doctors and patients consult via video call, but we had never succeeded. However, with the Covid epidemic, there’s no other choice but to have doctors videocall their patients. Now, I’d like to say it’s a new normal to our doctors as they admitted it’s not a bad idea to do video calls. In my opinion, we must bring this technology in to help us. We might not expect the existing technology to be useful in the medical field. The video call I mentioned doesn’t require any special application. The Line is famous in Thailand, so they use Line Video. It’s something everyone uses on our cellphone. It’s easy.”
– (Soundbite) Dr. Pornthep Pongtawigon – Director of Banphaeo General Hospital;
“To be honest, we started using telemedicine at the beginning of 2020. At that time, we’re facing the situation of what we called Covid. We tried to decrease the number of patients who came to receive our services, but, at the same time, we must continue our services too. So, we gathered and discussed. One of those (options) is the health checkup. So, we picked it. We set up cameras, installed applications, and promoted in many ways so our patients would all choose telemedicine. So, we may use it in some departments, some situations, and some groups of patients. We tried to apply it to decrease the number of walk-in patients. There might be some of the patients who are familiar with the old system where they can see doctors face-to-face. However, with many hospitals coming together, we can create a new stream. And thus, Banphaeo would like to be one of the first pioneers to test this system.”
– (Soundbite) Krittiya Phuengwattanaphong – Doctor, Banphaeo General Hospital;
“To be honest, it’s up to the patient. Our staff must ask the patient if it’s convenient for one to install the Zoom application. If not and one feels more convenient using the Line application, then we’ll go with Line. The internet is quite stable now. And the users are more educated with IT communications or using the cellphone. So, to tell you the truth, they’re only a few obstacles in IT communication. Mostly fine. But there’s also a limit to it. In the case of the patient who has abnormal syndromes, we won’t suggest one to receive online consulting.”
– (Soundbite) Dr. Jadej Thammatacharee – Secretary-General of National Health Security Office;
“An easy example is Covid. If we put the patients in isolation, we have those hotels we attuned them as hospitals. The cost for each patient will be around 60,000 baht (approx. 2,000 US dollars). But if we let the patient stay at home and do video calls, deliver food 3 meals a day, deliver pills and equipment to them, it’ll cost 10,000 – 20,000 baht each (approx. 334 – 667 US dollars). We have taken care of more than 100,000 patients at home. And we found the results were indifferent. The number of patients who would switch to yellow or red (level) wasn’t different from those who stayed at hotels or field hospitals. On the other hand, the patients didn’t pile up in hospitals.”
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