Hospitals in Bangkok

Bangkok has more good hospitals than any other city in Southeast Asia, and the problem is choosing rather than finding one. The capital is where Thailand’s medical tourism was invented: Bumrungrad, Bangkok Hospital and Samitivej draw patients from around the world and are run like hotels with operating theatres. Alongside them sit the university hospitals — Chulalongkorn, Siriraj and Ramathibodi — each with well over a thousand beds, many of the best specialists in the country and prices a fraction of the private ones, at the cost of queues and paperwork in Thai.

This page lists ten hospitals a visitor is actually likely to use, spread across the districts tourists stay in — Sukhumvit, Silom and Sathorn, Siam and Ratchaprasong, Rama IV, the river and Thonburi — with the practical detail: what kind of hospital it is, roughly how big, where it is, how to call it and how to find it on a map. Every name opens a full page on that hospital. Details were checked against each hospital’s own website in September 2026; switchboards do change, so if a number fails, call 1669.

The 10 at a glance

Bed counts are approximate. Tap a name for the full page.

The hospitals

Which hospital should I go to?

For a serious emergency with insurance, or anything complicated, go to Bumrungrad International Hospital on Sukhumvit Soi 3 or Bangkok Hospital off New Phetchaburi Road: both have 24-hour trauma cover, every specialty and interpreters. Samitivej Sukhumvit is the equivalent for the Thonglor end of Sukhumvit, BNH Hospital for Silom and Sathorn, and MedPark, the newest, for Rama IV and the convention-centre district. Vejthani is out east in Bang Kapi and mostly worth the trip for planned treatment rather than an emergency. Without insurance, the public university hospitals are excellent and cheap: King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital by Lumphini Park is the most central, Siriraj serves the river and the old city from the Thonburi bank, Ramathibodi covers Victory Monument and the north, and Police General Hospital sits in the middle of the Ratchaprasong shopping district. In a genuine life-or-death emergency go to the nearest emergency room of any of the ten, or call 1669 and let the ambulance crew decide.

What will it cost?

Three tiers, further apart in Bangkok than anywhere else in Thailand. The public university hospitals charge foreigners a little more than Thais and still very little: a consultation, tests and medicine at Chulalongkorn, Siriraj, Ramathibodi or Police General usually comes to less than a mid-range hotel night, and even an admission is affordable. The international private hospitals — Bumrungrad, Bangkok Hospital, Samitivej, MedPark, BNH and Vejthani — are priced like Western private hospitals: a simple outpatient visit with tests runs to a few thousand baht, and a serious admission without insurance quickly reaches the hundreds of thousands. Between the two sit dozens of mid-market Thai private hospitals that most visitors never hear of. Whatever the hospital, ask for a written estimate before any procedure; every one of them will give you one.

Insurance, deposits and paperwork

Bangkok’s private hospitals deal with foreign insurers every day and will call yours for a guarantee of payment — but only if the insurer has a contract with them, and usually only for an admission; outpatient visits are almost always pay-and-claim. If there is time, phone the assistance number on your policy first: it can name the hospital it prefers and open the claim before you arrive. Without a guarantee, a deposit on admission is normal. Take your passport, your policy number and any medication you are on; after a road accident, the rental agreement and your licence too. Public hospitals rarely direct-bill anyone: pay at the cashier and claim afterwards. At any hospital ask for an itemised receipt and an English-language medical certificate before you leave — both are routine requests, and both are needed for a claim.

Getting there and ambulances

Every hospital on this page has an emergency room, and the private ones run their own ambulances that come when you call the number on their page. The national ambulance number is 1669; it is free and takes you to the nearest appropriate hospital, which for an uninsured patient usually means a public one. For anything that can wait, the BTS and MRT beat the roads: Chulalongkorn, BNH, Police General and MedPark are each a few minutes’ walk from a station, Bumrungrad is close to BTS Nana, and Bangkok Hospital runs shuttle buses from MRT Phetchaburi and BTS Phrom Phong. Grab and Bolt work everywhere; a motorbike taxi is fast but no place for an injury. Bangkok traffic can turn a five-kilometre trip into an hour at rush hour, which is the strongest argument for calling an ambulance rather than driving.

Beyond Bangkok

The list stops at ten, but three more are worth knowing. Phyathai 2 (+66 2 617 2444, or 1772 from a Thai phone) is a large private hospital on Phahonyothin Road near BTS Sanam Pao, the natural choice if you are staying around Ari; Bangkok Christian Hospital, on Silom Road since 1949, is a long-established private alternative to BNH in the same district; and Samitivej Srinakarin (+66 2 378 9191) is the Samitivej group’s eastern hospital, the closest of this standard to Suvarnabhumi Airport. Heading down the coast, Pattaya’s hospitals have a page of their own. Serious cases from anywhere in Thailand are ultimately transferred to the Bangkok hospitals above, which is why the medevac lines — Bangkok Hospital’s 1724 and Bumrungrad’s +66 2 011 5222 — are worth saving even if you never plan to be in the capital.

Pharmacies

For a cold, a stomach upset, a rash or a hangover you do not need a hospital at all. Thai pharmacies sell most everyday medicines over the counter, including antibiotics and painkillers that would need a prescription at home, and a licensed pharmacist — look for the framed certificate — will usually speak enough English to advise. Boots and Watsons are in every mall and along Sukhumvit and Silom; the independent pharmacies around Nana, Thonglor and Khao San Road stay open late. Check expiry dates, and see a doctor if a fever lasts more than a couple of days: dengue is present in Bangkok and needs a blood test, not a pharmacy.

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Travel information, not medical advice.

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