Thai Traditional Medicines Hospital

The mansion that is used for a museum and Thai Traditional Medicine Dispensary at the hospital

Thursday was a pretty cool day at the Chao Phya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital, a regional hospital even though they it is the smallest facility for the region.  Regional hospitals are normally considered bigger and can offer more services than a district hospital which is mainly the hospitals that we have been seeing during our trip.  What makes this hospital unique is that it practices Thai Traditional Medicine (TTM) in the form of Thai massage and traditional Thai herbals through it’s own dispensary and manufacturing facility. 

The dispensing cabinet with the Thai Traditional Doctor assisting a group of Filipino women we were on tour with and Dean Tanzer

The display of traditional herbs and animals to display the history of Thai medication, it is very similar to old pharmacies in the US in the past with the dark wood

Wooden grinders on display in the museum

We have seen their products before at the Chiang Mai University community pharmacy as well as other community settings.  This hospital was also unique in that the hospital itself is controlled by the Ministry of Public Health but their Foundation that mainly runs the traditional medicines is privately funded.  This means that some of the services and medications must be paid out of pocket by the patients with no help from their government supplied coverage, unless the treatment has been researched and tested to provide benefit over Western therapies.  With the help of the foundation though many of the massage services are less than 100 baht per session for patients.  TTM works in many departments within the hospital like the neurology and obstetrics where they utilize massage and are continuously testing medications in controlled clinical trials.  The pharmacist that took us on our tour of the farm and of the hospital works in the clinical research department of the foundation for the hospital.  Seeing the farm where their herbals are grown was cool to try different leaves, smell bark, and look at the seeds of plants that are used as raw material for many traditional medications.  We were able to see the entire process from farming to drying to manufacturing and quality control for medication supplements that are not well controlled in the US.  They also enjoy producing the Thai herbs to keep business in the country and they don't have to import so many Chinese herbs for traditional type treatments.

Berries and leaves are used from this plant in different formulations such as suspensions and capsules 

This seed is used as a single extract to help common cold symptoms

Finished product on sale at the hospital for tea