Thailand’s free healthcare system is overworking its doctors. Can AI alleviate the burden?

With little triaging of illnesses or minimal health education for the public, hospitals and clinics are swamped with patients with minor illnesses who severely tax an under-resourced public medical system, according to the entrepreneurs.

These are just some of the many problems in the poorly administered system reeling from the impact of the country’s political instability, they say.

Former Thai neurosurgeon Navaporn Nalita was so incensed by the deaths of two severely overworked colleagues that she quit her job to build an AI-based system that hospitals could use to automate screening and diagnosis.

“They were really, really nice people. But they died because they worked two consecutive days [without any breaks]. And they didn’t sleep at all,” she said.

“I want to find a solution to change how we operate. People [doctors] shouldn’t be carrying all the responsibility and the burden of the problems in our health system,” she said. “We can do better.”

According to Navaporn, there are also some unreported cases of suicide among overworked healthcare workers in Thailand.

Thais are covered by three health insurance schemes, and the biggest one – the tax-funded Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) – covers about 75 per cent of the population. Thais were previously required to pay 30 baht as a co-payment for a medical appointment, but this was abolished in 2006.

Now, doctor appointments, emergency services and even check-ups by high-cost specialists are free.

Problems arose because people took advantage of free medical services, said Agnos Health CEO Paphonwit Chaiwatanodom.

“There are plenty of cases where people with a general fever will go to the emergency room at night. In Thailand, it’s very common because healthcare is free,” he said.

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