Problemsread more ↓

-Overcrowded Hospitals: Due to lack of space, some patients do not get a bed and are left sleeping on the hospital's balconies or walkways without mosquito nets, which exposes them to mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever. Due to overworked and a shortage of doctors, they have to work long hours. It is common for the overworked doctors in the public hospitals to fall asleep or make mistakes during surgery or while they are treating patients because of sleep deprivation. Patients have died because of this.

-Racism (caste system): Thai public hospitals legally have a 4 Tier payment system depending on a patient’s nationality and visa status. Treatment costs are set at four levels: Thai nationals, foreigners from neighboring countries, working foreigners on non-immigrant visas and tourists and retirees. There is a huge disparity in the cost people must pay for the same medical care. Health Care is provided at a reduced cost for Thai citizens only. If someone is not born in a hospital (they have no access to a hospital or cant afford one), they are not given a Thai ID card, a birth certificate and are not recognized as a Thai citizen. This means they will have to pay 100% of medical bills on their own, will not receive social security or any other help from the government.

-Lack of Health Care In Villages: Doctors in rural areas desire to move to hospitals in the city to receive a higher salary, better working hours and work in cleaner conditions.

-Lack of Health Care for Elderly (70 years old or more): The lack of caretakers and the lack of support for non-medical costs such as transportation (especially living in rural areas) to health facilities, however, is making access difficult. Those who are poor and live on monthly allowances from the universal social pension alone are the most vulnerable. They do not have money to pay for travel to health facilities when they’re sick, let alone for food and residence if overnight stay is required.

-Private Hospitals Are Too Expensive: Private hospitals have the best doctors, equipment and receive better funding than public hospitals. The majority of Thais cannot afford to go to private hospitals so the care they receive is not good.

-Public Hospitals Have Poor Quality: Public hospitals are overcrowded, underfunded, understaffed and in poor condition. People can also wait up 2 years, after they have been diagnosed, to receive any kind of treatment for their medical issue. The average Thai goes to pubic hospitals because of the health care system provided by the country.

-Premature Deaths: Young People die young due lack of urgency when it comes to getting medicine or having surgery, to HIV and road deaths.

-HIV (AIDS): Thailand has one of the largest HIV numbers in Asia and the Pacific accounting for 9% of the region’s total population of people living with HIV. Thailand was the first country in Asia to eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV for the people who can afford health care. 9% of people living with HIV were unaware of their status. Only 80% of the people who knew they were HIV positive were on treatment. The population most affected by HIV are homosexual male, sex workers, transgender people, drug addicts, prisoners, and migrants.

-Road Deaths: In their numbers, Thailand only counts deaths at the scene in their report (not the deaths caused by motor accidents but they die in the hospital). Thailand has the 2nd highest road fatalities per capita in the world. Thailand is number 1 in the world for motorbike deaths. (people cannot afford cars due to lack of education and skills) Thailand is number 2 in the world for deaths by car accident.

-Lack of doctors: there are about 18,000 doctors registered with the Public Health Ministry, of whom only 57% work in state hospitals, including regional and community hospitals. The problem is compounded by the unequal distribution of doctors. The doctor-patient ratio in Bangkok is 1-to-720, in the North it's 1-to-2,300, and in the Northeast it's 1-to-3,200. The World Health Organization’s standard is 1 to 1,,200. The turnover rate of doctors in state hospitals is higher than in private hospitals because of insufficient numbers of doctors, "making it hard to cope with ever increasing patients".

-Lack of Health Technology: There is a huge difference between the sectors and regions. The hospitals that are in larger areas have more funds and better equipment that is sanitary. This in comparison with rural areas, which lack even the most basic of tools and does not have an adequate space to treat patients.

-Air Pollution: Thailand suffers from one of the worst-ever air pollution levels in the world, caused by ultra-fine dust particles known as PM2.5. Traffic exhaust, construction works, burning crops and pollution from factories are blamed for the haze.

Statistics read more ↓

-Thailand’s adult survival rates between ages 15-60 is lower than over half of the countries where such data is available. Over the past 15 years, Thailand’s prevalence of diabetes and hypertension have tripled and quadrupled, respectively, and combined with high rates of road injuries, has negatively affected adult survival rate.

-Only 85% of 15-year-olds are expected to live past age 60.

-In 2018, an estimated 480,000 people were living with live HIV, including 4,100 children.

-Approximately, 18,000 people die every year from HIV.

-Approximately, 7,000 new people are infected with HIV every year. - Thailand’s Health Care system received an overall score of 67.99 out of 100. Breaking down the figure into categories, the country was given a score of 92.58 for its healthcare infrastructure, 17.37 for professionals' competence, 96.22 for cost, 67.51 for medicine availability and 89.91 for government readiness.

-The country's doctor-population ratio is 1 per 2,000, compared to 1 per 800 in Europe and 1 per 600 in Japan.

-Lack of family physicians: only about 5% of young doctors are choosing to become primary care doctors after finishing their three-year service in rural areas. Instead, they are leaving for jobs in the private sector, or are pursuing financially lucrative specialties such as cardiology. Doctors who are interested in family medicine have nobody to watch and learn from.

-60% of elderly people above the age of 60 are living with their adult children. 20% (13 million people) of the population of Thailand accounts for this age group.

-Older people (senior citizens) can only count on a 600-1,000 baht (about US$20-30) a month state pension, the rate depending on age.

-In 2018, Thailand averaged 60 road deaths per day. In 2018: 22,491 people died at the scene of the accident and 756,142 people were injured. 41% were caused by drunk driving. 28% were caused by speeding. 58% of car drivers in Thailand wear seatbelts.

-Bangkok’s population of 15 million spent 600 million baht in total to buy standard face masks over the course of two months, and 800,000 people would have needed to visit a hospital because of the air pollution.The amount would go to 800 million baht with an additional 2 million for medicine.

-The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines say that a person's average annual PM2.5 exposure should not exceed, on average, 10 microgrammes per cubic metre (mg/m³), and that exposure during any 24 hour period should not exceed 25 mg/m³). nThailand, however, capped the PM2.5 threshold at 50 mg/m³ per day, and 25 mg/m³ per annual average

-WHO says 59,000 people die every year due to the pollution

-In 2016, The Air Quality Life Index found 87 percent of Thailand’s 68 million people lived in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeded the WHO guideline. 75% percent lived in areas where it exceeded Thailand’s own air quality standard.