The M-Fund

I learned that there is a Migrant Fund in Thailand to provide low-cost healthcare for the millions of Burmese migrant people on the border. 

I\"m still learning about it, but it sounds like either you are a migrant worker and you can have the M-Fund or migrant folks can pay 100 Thai baht per month (Approx 3 USD) and receive care in the Thai medical system. This is a great deal, because it includes outpatient and inpatient care. 

I\"m seeing a fair number of patients at our little hospital that would be admitted immediately in America and need frequent monitoring, labwork, imaging and/or consultants: Upper GI bleed, Appendicitis, Alcohol withdrawal (we have 4 EtOH patients at the moment), Lupus flares, severe malnutrition, hypoxia, thalassemia. Here in our little hospital, they are admitted, but we do not have many lab results available, we have no official imaging, no endoscopy, no consultants other than Surgery which only comes on Fridays. We do have most essential medications. So far, there has not been any medication (other than Norepinephrine) that I\"ve asked for that we did not have. The staff tells me that the Thai medical system is afraid of the infectious diseases brought in by the Burmese migrant folks, so the Thai hospitals are more than happy to provide the medications and vaccines that we need so we can treat the Burmese people. 

But still, for inpatients that have M-Fund, I think they should go to the Thai hospital where they can have BUN/Cr, LFT\"s, the rest of the metabolic panel, Xrays, CT, specialists, etc.

Upper GI bleed patient came in with epigastric pain and a bunch of brown NG Tube output. We just empty NG tubes, Foleys, etc into open plastic baggies 







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