Hospitals in Koh Chang and Trat

Koh Chang is a big island with a small population, and its medical cover is sized for the residents rather than the visitors: one government community hospital of about two dozen beds on the quiet east coast, and one small private hospital run by Bangkok Hospital Trat at White Sand Beach, where most foreign visitors stay. Everything beyond a straightforward emergency or a night of observation goes to the mainland — to Bangkok Hospital Trat, the province’s private hospital, or to Trat Hospital, the 300-bed provincial hospital that was renamed Phra Piyamaharaj Hospital in March 2026 — and getting there means a ferry. Koh Kood and Koh Mak, further out, have a ten-bed community hospital and a health centre respectively, and a longer boat ride.

This page lists the four hospitals with the practical detail: what kind of hospital each is, roughly how big, where it is, how to call it and how to find it on a map, plus a section on what evacuation from each island actually involves. Every name opens a full page on that hospital. Details were checked against each hospital’s own website or two independent directories in September 2026; switchboards do change, so if a number fails, call 1669.

The 4 at a glance

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

The hospitals

Which hospital should I go to?

On Koh Chang with insurance, or for anything you want handled in English without waiting, go to Koh Chang International Hospital at the southern end of White Sand Beach: it is open around the clock, has a CT scanner, an ambulance and a medical boat, and it decides when you need the mainland. Without insurance, or for a minor problem on a budget, Koh Chang Hospital at Dan Mai on the east coast is the public option, at a fraction of the price. On the mainland, Bangkok Hospital Trat is the private hospital with the specialists and Trat Hospital is the big public one; they sit on the same road, a few minutes apart. In a genuine life-or-death emergency go to the nearest of the four, or call 1669 and let the ambulance crew decide.

What will it cost?

Three tiers, with an island premium on top. The two public hospitals charge foreigners a little more than Thais but still very little: a consultation, tests and medicine at Koh Chang Hospital or Trat Hospital usually comes to less than a night in a mid-range bungalow, and an admission is affordable. Bangkok Hospital Trat is priced like a Bangkok private hospital — several times the public rate, with a deposit on admission — and Koh Chang International Hospital costs more again, because everything on the island is dearer and because it is the only private door there: island guides quote a few thousand baht simply to see a doctor, against a few hundred at the parent hospital on the mainland. A boat transfer is billed separately, and it is not cheap. Ask for a written estimate before any procedure at any of them.

Insurance, deposits and paperwork

Both private hospitals coordinate with insurers, and Koh Chang International Hospital says so explicitly — but cashless treatment only happens when your insurer has an agreement with the hospital, and usually only for an admission; outpatient visits are pay-and-claim. If there is time, ring the assistance number on your policy before you go: it can authorise the boat as well as the bed. Bring your passport, your policy number, any medication you take and, after a scooter accident, the rental agreement and your licence — Thai compulsory motor insurance covers some injury costs, but only for a licensed rider, and many travel policies exclude motorbikes altogether. Ask for an itemised receipt and an English medical certificate before you leave any hospital; the public ones will write them if asked, in Thai unless you say otherwise.

Getting there and ambulances

Koh Chang has one road, a horseshoe that runs down the west coast past the beaches and down the east coast past Dan Mai, with no link across the south. Koh Chang International Hospital is at the southern end of White Sand Beach, twenty minutes from the ferry piers and up to an hour from Bang Bao; Koh Chang Hospital is at Dan Mai, fifteen minutes south of the piers on the other side of the island. Both run ambulances. The national number is 1669, free, which on the island takes you to the public hospital; 1719 reaches the Bangkok Hospital network from a Thai phone. Songthaews are the island taxis and will take a patient to either hospital for a negotiated fare; a motorbike is no place for an injury, and the hill roads between the beaches are steep and slick in the rain.

The islands and the ferry

Every serious case leaves by sea. From Koh Chang the car ferries cross to Ao Thammachat and Centrepoint piers in thirty to forty-five minutes, and the piers are another half hour by road from the two Trat hospitals, so from a west-coast beach allow an hour and a half to two hours to a mainland bed in daylight. The ferries stop in the early evening; after that it is the private hospital’s medical boat or a chartered speedboat. Koh Kood is further out — boats from Laem Sok take an hour or more, run only in daylight and thin out in the rainy season. It has a ten-bed public community hospital at Khlong Hin Dam near Ao Tapao, and Bangkok Hospital Trat keeps a nurse-staffed post with a medical boat at Ao Salat, reached on 1719. Koh Mak has only a health centre on the road to Ao Nid pier. The gravest cases go on by road: Pattaya is three and a half hours from Trat, Bangkok five.

Pharmacies

For sunburn, an upset stomach, a rash or an infected scrape you do not need a hospital. Every beach on Koh Chang — White Sand, Klong Prao, Kai Bae, Lonely Beach, Bang Bao — has an independent pharmacy that sells most everyday medicines over the counter, antibiotics and painkillers included, and the pharmacist usually speaks enough English to advise; there are no big chains on the islands. Koh Kood has one in Klong Chao and one at Hin Dam; on Koh Mak the resorts and the health centre are the fallback. Cuts heal slowly in the humidity, so clean them properly and keep them dry. Sandflies are a nuisance on Koh Mak, jellyfish stings get vinegar first — Koh Mak keeps vinegar posts on its beaches — and a fever that lasts more than a couple of days needs a blood test for dengue, which is present in Trat, not a pharmacy.

Hospitals in Pattaya / Thailand visa guide / Thailand destinations / Hospitals in Thailand / Hospitals in Thailand / All hospitals

Travel information, not medical advice.

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