Public hospital, Suan Dok, west of the old city. Emergency room open 24 hours, ground floor of the Chaloem Phra Baramee building.
Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital
Suan Dok to everyone — the 1,400-bed university teaching hospital west of the old city, the north’s trauma centre and where the other hospitals send what they cannot handle.
Ambulance and medical emergency: 1669. Tourist Police: 1155. Police: 191.
Show this to your driver
โรงพยาบาลมหาราชนครเชียงใหม่
Say “rong phayaban Suan Dok” — nobody uses the official name. The campus fills the block just west of Suan Dok Gate, between Suthep Road and Inthawarorot Road, five minutes from Nimman.
Everyone, drivers included, calls it Suan Dok: โรงพยาบาลสวนดอก.
- TypePublic — university teaching hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University; known to everyone as Suan Dok
- BedsAbout 1,400
- Address110 Inthawarorot Road, Sri Phum, Mueang Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai 50200
- Switchboard+66 53 936 150
- Emergency room+66 53 936 333
- Emergency medical service and ambulance, 24 hours+66 53 938 777
- Websitemed.cmu.ac.th/web/suandok-hospital
- HoursEmergency room open 24 hours, ground floor of the Chaloem Phra Baramee building
- LanguagesThai; English from most doctors, little at the counters
- Opened1941
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
The university hospital, and the region’s hospital of last resort. Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai — Suan Dok to every driver, nurse and resident — is the teaching hospital of Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine, open since 1941, with around 1,400 beds, a 24-hour emergency room and its own ambulance service. It offers the most advanced care in the north at public prices; the price of that is queues, crowded wards and paperwork in Thai.
What it is known for
Being the north’s hospital of last resort. Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai — Suan Dok to everyone — is the teaching hospital of Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine, the first university hospital outside Bangkok, open since 1941 and now around 1,400 beds. It provides the most advanced level of care in the region: the emergency room on the ground floor of the Chaloem Phra Baramee building is open 24 hours and triages by severity, the 24-hour emergency medical service runs its own ambulances, and every specialty is here, with the professors to match. The serious road-accident victims from the mountain roads, the complicated cases the private hospitals cannot manage and the region’s poorest patients all end up under this roof.
Who it suits
Anyone with a life-threatening emergency, insured or not: this is where the region’s trauma and critical-care expertise is concentrated, and where the other hospitals send what they cannot handle. Travellers without insurance who need real treatment at a price they can pay. Long-stay residents with chronic or rare conditions who want a professor rather than a generalist. It is not the place for a quick English-language consultation: the outpatient queues are long, forms are in Thai and the wards are crowded. If your problem is minor and you have money, go to Sriphat next door or a private hospital and leave Suan Dok’s beds for those who need them.
Cost and insurance
Public university-hospital prices: foreigners pay more than Thais, but the bill for a consultation, tests and medicine is still small, and even intensive care costs a fraction of a private hospital’s. Payment is at the cashier, in cash or by card, before you leave; insurers almost never direct-bill a public hospital, so expect to pay and claim. Bring your passport, ask for an itemised receipt and an English medical certificate — both are routine — and if you are admitted, ask about a private room, which costs extra but is quieter. The emergency room answers on +66 53 936 333 and the ambulance service on +66 53 938 777.
Getting there
The hospital fills the large block immediately west of Suan Dok Gate, on the west side of the old city, between Suthep Road to the south and Inthawarorot Road to the north; the emergency department is in the Chaloem Phra Baramee building on the Suthep Road side. It is five minutes by car from Nimman, ten from Tha Phae Gate, and red songthaews heading along Suthep Road stop outside. Say “Suan Dok” to any driver — nobody uses the official name. In an emergency call 1669 or the hospital’s own 24-hour emergency medical service on +66 53 938 777 and let the ambulance crew handle the traffic.
Details checked against the hospital’s own website, September 2026. Call before a non-urgent visit; in an emergency call 1669 or the hospital’s own emergency line above. Travel information, not medical advice.
The other 7 hospitals in Chiang Mai
- Nakornping HospitalPublic, about 860 beds, Chotana Road (Route 107), Mae Rim.
- Chiang Mai Ram HospitalPrivate, about 350 beds, Boonruangrit Road, outside the west moat.
- Lanna HospitalPrivate, about 180 beds, Sukkasem Road, off Chotana Road, north of the moat.
- Rajavej Chiang Mai HospitalPrivate, about 150 beds, Chiang Mai-Lamphun Road, south of Nawarat Bridge.
- Bangkok Hospital Chiang MaiPrivate, about 122 beds, Superhighway (Route 11), east of the Ping.
- McCormick HospitalPrivate, Kaew Nawarat Road, east bank of the Ping.
- Sriphat Medical CenterPublic, Sriphat building, Suan Dok hospital campus.