Destitute foreigners and Thailand’s hospitals

Savings quickly used up on entertainment and women, lacking health insurance, hospitals end up paying for their chronic illnesses.

PHUKET : State hospitals in the southern province are shouldering a heavy burden for treating elderly foreigners who cannot afford to pay their medical bills.

Many retired foreigners who came to Thailand with the hope of settling down here are now struggling after spending their pensions wastefully and marrying Thai women, some of whom left them after their money ran out.

Lots of foreigners have fallen ill and been admitted to local hospitals. Their relatives back home refuse to pay for their treatment on being contacted by the embassy, Vachira Phuket Hospital’s public relations centre said.

The embassies regard the matter as personal. They will provide help to their nationals only in cases of emergency or disaster.

“So we’ve treated these patients based on professional ethics until the last moments of their lives. Funeral rites and merit-making ceremonies are held for them,” a source at the centre said.