00:00Are you planning a trip to Thailand in the near future? Maybe you're thinking
00:03about coming here for a holiday or living here full-time as an expat as
00:08many people each year choose to do. Well if you are and one of your concerns is
00:14what if I get sick or if I get into some sort of unfortunate accident and I end
00:20up in the hospital and need to receive treatment by doctors here in Thailand.
00:25If this is something that concerns you and you want to know what Thailand
00:29hospitals are really like then this video is for you. I'm going to be sharing
00:33our experience from visiting Thailand hospitals multiple times over the past
00:3812 months and I'm also going to share some comparative data of the healthcare
00:43system here in Thailand versus back home in Australia as well as Canada and the
00:48United States. But before I do if you find this video helpful at all please hit the
00:53like button and remember to subscribe for more content just like this. Okay so if
00:57you've been watching our channel you would know that my wife Mandy and I have
01:01been living in Thailand on and off for the last 12 months and we're having our
01:07first baby here in Thailand. Really any day now actually to be honest. So having
01:12said that we visited our fair share of doctors and hospitals over the past 12
01:17months not only for pregnancy checkups but I've been sick a couple of times and
01:22had to go to the hospital I've been to the dentist here in Thailand as well as
01:28received acupuncture and visited a chiropractor as well. If you've never
01:32been to Thailand and you've never been to a doctor or hospital here then you
01:38would probably assume that the level of care is not as good as it might be in
01:42more developed countries. But you'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that the
01:48Thailand health care system is ranked one of the highest in Asia and since 2016
01:54it's actually been ranked sixth best in the world behind Denmark, Japan, South
02:02Korea, Russia and Taiwan. Also Thailand health care costs are roughly one-fifth of
02:07the price of health care costs in the United States on average. There are
02:12currently 370 private hospitals in Thailand with over 36,000 beds. In Thailand
02:19the health care sector is split into three sections government health care,
02:23private health care and nonprofit organizations. And Thailand is actually
02:28one of the main medical hotspots in Asia with many people coming to Thailand
02:32specifically for medical tourism and that's because not only can you receive a
02:38very good level of treatment such as dental or cosmetic surgery for example but
02:44you also get to have a holiday while you're receiving treatment here in Thailand.
02:49So the private hospitals here in Thailand I have to say have excellent
02:53facilities and staff from our experience. We've been visiting the same private
02:58hospital for almost nine months during Mandy's pregnancy and everything from the
03:04parking situation which is absolutely free by the way and when you park there's
03:10actually a courtesy golf cart shuttle service that will take you from the
03:15car park to the main entrance of the hospital. And the facilities in the hospital
03:19are absolutely amazing there's plenty of cafes and restaurants with great food
03:24options and also reasonable prices and it really just doesn't feel like a
03:29stuffy hospital. Everybody greets you with a smile and the nurses and staff are all
03:36extremely positive and helpful and most of them can speak quite good English which
03:41helps a lot too. But the private health care is run by private organizations and
03:45companies and therefore you need to pay out of pocket for visiting a private
03:50hospital in most circumstances. Whereas public health care in Thailand is
03:55completely free for Thai citizens who have a universal health card. And it's
04:00also quite a bit cheaper for foreigners than visiting a private hospital as well
04:04however the government hospitals are often a lot busier and a bit more
04:09understaffed. Which means that wait times are longer and the facilities aren't
04:14necessarily as nice as the facilities in private hospitals. But I have been told by
04:20some friends of mine that have visited the public hospitals here, the doctors and the
04:25nursing staff are all super competent and amazing and are some of the same
04:29doctors and nurses that work in the private hospitals here. So aside from our
04:35experience being pretty much nothing but positive here in Thailand I'll share
04:38some statistics so we can actually see how the healthcare system stacks up
04:44against other countries. So some statistics for waiting times for healthcare in
04:49Australia are as follows. For most public patient surgeries it'll take about 40
04:54days to get the surgery you're waiting for. 13.9% of people report waiting three
05:01months to see a specialist in Australia. 42% of people reported having no wait for
05:07primary care appointments. However the other 58% report waiting between three to
05:13six days. And an emergency department visit wait time can vary between 10 minutes and
05:19four hours in Australia. Now in the study done in a GP clinic in a tertiary hospital
05:25here in Thailand, the average wait times at each service station are as follows.
05:30Triage is four minutes, medical records six minutes, insurance three minutes, lab seven
05:38minutes, x-ray 25 minutes, GP up to 93 minutes and pharmacy 35 minutes. And you can
05:46expect to see a specialist and be admitted for surgery within just a few days at a
05:52private hospital in Thailand as well as an appointment for a GP usually on the
05:57same day. From our personal experience with both visiting the OBGYN for Mandy's
06:03pregnancy as well as myself visiting the GP for a couple of times we found that the
06:08wait times were very minimal. The only reason we've ever had to wait to see a
06:13doctor is because the doctor was called out for an emergency surgery or something
06:18like that. And it's important to note that visiting a private hospital here in
06:23Thailand wouldn't be as affordable for us if we didn't have a great health
06:27insurance coverage. Which is why we've been covered by Safety Wing Nomad Insurance
06:32since we left Australia almost three years ago. Which has been amazing for both
06:36health and travel insurance covering us for everything from lost luggage to minor
06:42health scares. But since we decided a while ago that we did want to have a baby
06:46while we were living here in Thailand we now not only have reliable travel
06:50insurance for when we're on the road but we're also covered for all of our
06:55medical needs as digital nomads including maternity because we now have
06:59Safety Wings Nomad Health coverage. So Nomad Health is a global health insurance
07:04for remote workers and nomads just like us. It's basically a fully fledged health
07:09insurance that covers your medical needs worldwide including in your home country.
07:15So the way it works for maternity is there is a 10 month waiting period so if
07:19you're on the fence or if you're thinking maybe you do want to have a baby
07:24overseas for instance in Thailand then we'd advise signing up as soon as possible.
07:30And while Nomad Health does include maternity cover it's actually very handy for a lot of
07:35other things including dental, optometry, screenings and vaccines, physiotherapy and
07:41much much more. Both Mandy and I are covered by Nomad Health and I actually have used it
07:46to visit the dentist recently. I got some new glasses earlier in the year and I've
07:51been doing some acupuncture and physiotherapy and all of this has been
07:55possible because of Safety Wing Nomad Health. So if you're a digital nomad like us
08:00who's thinking about maybe having a baby overseas or you just want a fully fledged
08:05health insurance check out Safety Wing Nomad Health. We'll leave the link down
08:10below in the description. Okay so moving on to Canada. All citizens in Canada and
08:15permanent residents are covered by the health care system which is the same as
08:20Australia while in the United States studies suggest that seven percent of US
08:25citizens do not have adequate health insurance if any at all. One big
08:30complaint about both the US and Canadian systems is waiting times whether for a
08:35specialist, surgery or specialist treatment such as radiation for breast
08:40cancer. A 2021 survey found that 39% of Canadians waited two hours or more in the
08:46emergency room versus 31% in the United States. 43% waited four weeks or more to see a
08:54specialist versus 10% in the United States. And the same survey states that 37% of
09:00Canadians say it's difficult to access care after hours without going to the ER.
09:0547% of Canadians and 50% of Americans who visited the ER over the last two years
09:11felt that they could have been treated at their normal place of care if they were
09:16able to get an appointment. In the United States the average wait time for a
09:20first time appointment is 24 days which is three times faster than in Canada and
09:26wait times for emergency room services average 24 minutes which is four times
09:32faster than in Canada. Wait times for specialists average three to six weeks in
09:36the United States which is six times faster than Canada. So it seems like even
09:42though public health care is free to citizens in Canada the level of care is not as
09:47great as the United States in general. However the United States has the issue of
09:52health care not being free to citizens and pretty much everybody needs health
09:57insurance in the United States which is a stark contrast to Thailand. So I'm
10:02actually going to read a reddit post that I found while researching this topic and
10:07the post says how does Thailand's medical system compare to other countries? So the
10:14first reply says very good especially compared to its GDP. All Thai citizens
10:19and foreigners working here get free public health care and there are over
10:23500,000 health volunteers across the country to provide treatment in the
10:28communities. That's why Thailand always ranks high in health care. And so the
10:31second comment I found was very interesting which says I'm from Canada
10:35Thailand is significantly better. I've had no issues here finding specialists
10:40literally just walked in and I'm usually given an appointment that day or at worst
10:45later that week which has been that same experience for us as well. Whereas back
10:49home in Canada a referral takes months and for some weird reason people just
10:54accept that fact even though we're grossly overtaxed. I've got to agree with that.
10:59The next one says I've thankfully not needed an ER room here in Thailand but I know the
11:04wait times are much shorter than in Canada even with the significantly larger
11:09population here. It's normal to wait 12 plus hours before you even get a bed in
11:14Canada but for serious issues I've never heard of anyone waiting that long here in
11:19Thailand. Yeah and we've had one trip to the ER and we've only waited for about 10
11:24minutes before Mandy was in a bed receiving treatment and she was discharged
11:29within like two to three hours and the total bill was I think around $100 and
11:34might have even been less than $100. And someone commented underneath that I agree I'm a Canadian
11:40here. I've used the emergency rooms at Pattaya Bangkok Hospital. I came in with a panic attack
11:45at 5am, could not remember my name, could not sign anything, could not operate my phone. I stayed in the
11:51ER
11:51wing for a few hours after getting some medication and being hooked up to heart monitors. They wanted
11:56to release me but I told them no I'm not going anywhere. I think something's wrong. I need to be
12:01admitted. Once they were sure I had insurance they wheeled me to a private room and had a balcony,
12:0755 inch TV, couch, table and fridge and I stayed for two nights while they ran all their tests.
12:14Great service. This person then says on another note while in Bangkok a few years back I rolled
12:19my ankle and was in severe pain. Nothing broken but tendons. I went to submit to the hospital and
12:25asked for cortisone shots for the pain which was no problem. Three months later when the cortisone was
12:30wearing off I was back in Canada. I went to the hospital for a shot with my Thai doctor's note
12:36and they would not do it. Instead they gave me a compression sock. I wore it for about a day
12:40and walked in pain for six months. So there's my breakdown of Thailand's hospitals. As you can see
12:46Thailand is an ideal destination for medical tourism and for long-term living. If your health is something
12:53you're concerned about with high quality medical care, cost, effectiveness and lower cost of living
12:59it's a great place for long-stay patients. And the Thailand government has made a conceded effort to
13:06turn the country into the world's medical hub over the next decade which I think it will become. So if
13:12you found this video helpful at all please hit the like button and subscribe for more content just
13:17like this. And we will see you in the next one. Cheers.
