Dr Busaya Santisan of Vachira Phuket Hospital, who was tasked as the director of the field hospital, took the opportunity to praise the island’s officials for the idea of setting up field hospitals.
“This was the first time this idea has been tried in Phuket,” she said, reported the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket).
Dr Busaya also praised all parties involved in setting up the facility, especially the medical staff stationed there, said the report.
“I would like to thank the Phuket Governor, Vice Governor, the Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital and all sectors that supported the operations of the field hospital as well,” said Dr Busaya.
“In addition, the readiness of the personnel on duty at this field hospital came with heart and sacrifice. Although they knew they would be at risk [of contracting the virus], they performed their duties in taking good care of patients,” she added.
Dr Busaya called on people to observe the ‘new normal’ and to protect themselves from the virus by wearing face masks, maintaining social distance and washing their hands frequently.
One of the two patients discharged from the facility today, a 58 year-old woman from Thalang, not named in the report, said, “I would like to thank the medical staff for their care. Throughout the period of treatment I was closely monitored, warmly.
“And I am glad to go home today, but I will strictly follow the doctors’ advice,” she said.
The woman also urged, “And I want to ask people in Phuket to please take care yourselves, and if you are sick, you should go see a doctor and you must tell them the truth for treatment to be safe from COVID-19.”
No details of the other patient discharged from the facility were made available.
Although Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana on Mar 24 announced that the field hospital would be set up, and a mass “rehearsal” of moving patients into the facility was held two days later, officials never confirmed when the first actual patients were moved into the field hospital.
Regardless, Dr Busaya today said that a total of 121 people were admitted to the field hospital since it opened, whenever that was.
“Two of those patients were transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital as their condition deteriorated and their symptoms became serious,” Dr Busaya said.
“One of those two patients was later transferred back to the field hospital after the symptoms were not so serious,” he added.
Dr Busaya made no mention of what happened to the other patient that was transferred to Vachira hospital, though none of the three people who have died in Phuket from being infected with the virus were reported to have been admitted to the field hospital. (See here, here and here.)
The field hospital, now with no patients at all, will remain empty overnight and still close tomorrow, Dr Busaya confirmed.
“After this, Phuket province will temporarily close the first field hospital in order for medical personnel to perform their duties in their usual areas, but we will still keep medical equipment, beds, mattresses and appliances here until the situation of the spread of COVID-19 reaches normal conditions,” Dr Busaya said.
However, the PR Phuket report of the field hospital discharging its last two patients today gave no indication of the whereabouts of the people still waiting for tests results to confirm whether or not they are actually infected with COVID-19.
The daily reports of the COVID-19 situation in Phuket by PR Phuket and by the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), which serves as the Phuket Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Incident Command Center, have for months consistently reported that all people waiting for test results are in hospital care.
As of today, PR Phuket reported that figure at 33 people. Currently, exactly where those people are in hospital care remains unknown.
According to the “Phuket AntiCovid-19” Facebook page, set up as yet another official portal for disseminating information to the public, Phuket’s last “patient” receiving hospital care for COVID-19 is recovering at Bangkok Hospital Phuket.