Hospitals in Korat and Khao Yai

Korat — Nakhon Ratchasima on the road signs, Korat to everyone who lives there — is the first city of the north-east, and for medicine it is the region’s anchor: Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital is the largest hospital the Ministry of Public Health runs anywhere in the country, at close to 1,500 beds, and patients are referred to it from across Isan. Alongside it the city has a Bangkok Hospital on the Mittraphap Road and a long-established not-for-profit private hospital a little further north. Eighty-five kilometres west, where the same highway climbs towards Khao Yai, the district town of Pak Chong has a 300-bed public general hospital and a private hospital of its own — which matters, because there is no hospital inside the national park.

This page lists all five 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 in September 2026 against each hospital’s own website where it could be reached, and otherwise against independent directories that agree; switchboards do change, so if a number fails, call 1669.

The 5 at a glance

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

The hospitals

Which hospital should I go to?

In Korat city, a serious emergency with insurance goes to Bangkok Hospital Ratchasima on the Mittraphap Road, which has the specialists, the private rooms and the paperwork your insurer expects. Without insurance, or for anything genuinely major, Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital in the middle of town is the province’s referral hospital and the place the ambulances go; it is cheap, crowded and very capable. For a minor illness or injury at private-hospital speed, Saint Mary’s Hospital north of the centre is the practical middle option. Out at Pak Chong, for Khao Yai, Pak Chong Nana Hospital is the public general hospital and Bangkok Hospital Pak Chong the private one, both on the highway through town.

What will it cost?

Two tiers, with a wide gap between them. At the public hospitals — Maharat and Pak Chong Nana — a foreigner pays more than a Thai citizen but still very little by Western standards: a consultation, basic tests and medicine usually come to less than a night in a decent hotel, and even an admission stays affordable. The private hospitals charge several times that for the same outpatient visit, and Bangkok Hospital Ratchasima is priced like a Bangkok private hospital, which with insurance is money well spent and without it is not. Ask for a written estimate before any procedure anywhere, and expect a deposit if you are admitted to a private hospital.

Insurance, deposits and paperwork

The private hospitals here are used to travel insurance and will contact your insurer for a guarantee of payment, but usually only for an admission and only where a contract exists; outpatient visits are almost always pay-and-claim. Ring the assistance number on your policy first if there is time. Take your passport, your policy number and a list of any medication you are on; after a road accident take the rental agreement and your driving licence as well, because Thailand’s compulsory motor insurance covers some injury costs but only for a properly licensed rider. Ask for an itemised receipt and an English-language medical certificate before you leave — both are routine requests, and both are much harder to obtain later.

Getting there and ambulances

The national ambulance number is 1669. It is free, it is answered around the clock, and it takes you to the nearest appropriate hospital — in practice the public one, which for an uninsured patient is the right answer anyway. The private hospitals run their own ambulances and will send one to the number on their page. For anything that can wait, Grab and Bolt both work in Korat, and songthaews run the main roads cheaply but slowly; in Pak Chong a taxi has to be called rather than hailed. The Mittraphap Road through both towns is heavy with lorries and slows badly in the late afternoon.

Khao Yai and the park

There is no hospital inside Khao Yai National Park, and the nearest emergency rooms are down the mountain in Pak Chong — Pak Chong Nana for public care, Bangkok Hospital Pak Chong for private. From the visitor centre that is the better part of an hour on a winding, unlit road, so a fall on a trail or a scooter spill on the way up is not a five-minute problem; tell someone your route before you walk. Road casualties on Highway 2 through Pak Chong are taken to the same two hospitals. If a case is beyond them it goes on to Korat, about eighty-five kilometres east, or to Bangkok, which is two and a half to three hours away in normal traffic.

Pharmacies

For a stomach upset, a cold, a rash or an insect bite you do not need a hospital. Thai pharmacies sell most everyday medicines over the counter, including some that need a prescription at home, and a licensed pharmacist — look for the framed certificate on the wall — will usually have enough English to advise. In Korat there are branches in the big malls on and around the Mittraphap Road as well as independents around the old town; in Pak Chong the pharmacies are strung along the main road through town. Check the expiry date, and see a doctor if a fever lasts more than a couple of days: dengue needs a blood test, not a pharmacy.

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

Travel information, not medical advice.

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