Ramathibodi Hospital

Today we separated into groups, 5 went to a community pharmacy and 3 of us went to Ramathibodi hospital a hospital associated with Mahidol University. We toured the university yesterday. It is one of the best schools in Thailand. Today we met so many pharmacists and they were all so friendly and funny! We started off with a few lectures about the hospital and then an ID pharmacist gave us a lecture on the huge resistance problem they have here in Thailand. In this country you are able to buy many medications over the counter without prescriptions including antibiotics. Due to this, many people buy and use antibiotics when they are not needed. The ID pharmacist also said there is a problem with physicians over prescribing them and/or prescribing them for too long because they believe this is more safe in getting rid of infections. I was shocked to see the many antibiotics that we commonly use in America that are unable to be used here in Thailand. I have attached below images of some of the worst. We were also told that the country is trying to change that you can get medications over the counter into more requiring prescriptions, starting with antibiotics. I am a stickler for Stewardship programs and can only hope this works!

 

We were then treated to an amazing lunch! There is a pop-up market that only comes to the hospital twice a month and we were lucky enough that today was one of those days! The pharmacists helped us pick out so much good street food and drinks from the market! We ate all these goodies family style (the best style).

After lunch we toured all 3 buildings that made up the hospital and the many pharmacies that they all contained. The hospital has over 200 pharmacists and we got to meet a lot of them! The pharmacies are split up based on medication indications. For example, one pharmacy is for dermatology and orthopedic medications while another is for psych and family medicine. We finished the day with a coffee break where they taught us how to say some common terms in Thai. Below is all of us at a cute little coffee shop! We're going back tomorrow to tour the wards, I cant wait!

Until next time!

-Lindsey