Hospitals in Phuket

Phuket has more hospitals than any other Thai island because it needs them: several million visitors a year, more rented scooters than anywhere else in the country, a dive industry that reaches out to the Similans, and a resident population of roughly half a million. The result is a real choice — two large, internationally accredited private hospitals in and around Phuket Town, a 550-bed provincial referral hospital, a lower-priced private hospital from the same group as the flagship, a long-established non-profit hospital, and three public community hospitals placed where visitors actually are: Patong, Chalong and Thalang by the airport.

This page lists all eight 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 or, where that was not possible, against two independent directories that agree; switchboards do change, so if a number fails, call 1669. Phi Phi, which most people reach from Phuket, has only a small public hospital and a couple of private clinics; the section on diving and the islands explains what happens if you are seriously hurt there.

The 8 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 Bangkok Hospital Phuket in town or Bangkok Hospital Siriroj on the bypass road: both are large, accredited, English-speaking and open around the clock, and Siriroj has the island’s 24-hour recompression chamber. Staying in Patong? Patong Hospital is public, a kilometre from the beach and the natural first stop for a minor injury or a night-time accident; anything serious is stabilised and sent over the hill. Kata, Karon, Rawai and Chalong have Chalong Hospital, small and new, by the circle on the road to the pier. Near the airport, Bang Tao or Nai Yang, Thalang Hospital is fifteen minutes away. Without insurance and short of money, Vachira Phuket Hospital in town is the big public hospital, and Mission Hospital and Dibuk Hospital are the two cheaper private options. In a life-or-death emergency go to the nearest emergency room of any of the eight, or call 1669 and let the ambulance crew decide.

What will it cost?

Three tiers, as everywhere in Thailand. The public hospitals — Vachira, Patong, Chalong and Thalang — charge foreigners more than Thais but still very little by Western standards: a consultation, tests and medicine typically come to less than a night in a mid-range hotel, and even an admission is affordable, though the wards are crowded and the paperwork is in Thai. Mission Hospital and Dibuk Hospital are the mid-market private choices, charging a few times public prices for the same outpatient visit and expecting a deposit on admission. Bangkok Hospital Phuket and Bangkok Hospital Siriroj are priced like the top Bangkok hospitals, which is to say like a Western private hospital: with insurance they are worth every baht; without it, a serious admission — or a speedboat or helicopter transfer from an island — runs into the hundreds of thousands of baht. Ask for a written estimate before any procedure at any of them.

Insurance, deposits and paperwork

Phuket’s private hospitals deal with travel 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 before you go: it can name the hospital it prefers and open the claim, and for a diving accident it will want to know early. Take your passport, your policy number, any medication you are on and, after a road accident, the rental agreement and your licence — the compulsory motor insurance on a rented scooter covers some injury costs, but only for a licensed rider, and many travel policies exclude scooter accidents altogether when the rider holds no motorcycle licence. Always ask for an itemised receipt and an English-language medical certificate before you leave; the public hospitals will produce both if asked.

Getting there and ambulances

Every hospital on this list runs its own ambulance, and the private ones will send one when you call the number on its page; the two BDMS hospitals share the 1719 hotline, which the group says can also arrange transfer by sea and by air. The national ambulance number is 1669; it is free, and it takes you to the nearest appropriate hospital, which for an uninsured patient usually means a public one. Distances matter more here than in a city: Patong to Phuket Town is a twenty-to-thirty-minute drive over the hill through Kathu and much longer in the evening rush, Kata and Karon to the bypass-road hospitals thirty to forty minutes, and the airport to Phuket Town forty-five minutes or more. For anything that can wait, Grab and Bolt cars work across the island and are the fastest option; the taxi and tuk-tuk stands in Patong will take you but charge fixed fares. A motorbike taxi is no place for an injury.

Diving, boats and the islands

Phuket has recompression facilities. The 24-hour multiplace chamber is the SSS Network unit at Bangkok Hospital Siriroj (emergency line +66 81 081 9000, or 1719); Bangkok Hospital Phuket runs a monoplace chamber in its diving medicine centre by day, and Vachira Phuket Hospital, the public hospital, has a hyperbaric unit — phone before heading there. If a diver surfaces unwell, the boat’s oxygen comes out, the chamber is called and the boat makes for Chalong or Rassada pier, where an ambulance can meet it. The islands are thinner. Koh Phi Phi has a small ten-bed public hospital at Ton Sai (it belongs to Krabi province) and a private clinic or two with steep charges; anything serious means a speedboat, roughly an hour to Phuket or Krabi, which the private hospitals will arrange and which costs tens of thousands of baht without insurance. Khao Lak has Takuapa Hospital, a public district hospital, more than an hour from Phuket’s private hospitals.

Pharmacies

For a cold, a stomach upset, a rash, sunburn 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 in Jungceylon and Central Phuket are the easy option; the independent pharmacies along Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road in Patong, the main roads of Kata and Karon and the streets of Phuket Town stay open late. Check expiry dates, and see a doctor if a fever lasts more than a couple of days: dengue is present in Phuket all year and needs a blood test, not a pharmacy. Several west-coast beaches keep vinegar at their lifeguard posts for jellyfish stings; a sting that spreads or comes with breathing trouble is a 1669 call, not a pharmacy visit.

Phuket and Phi Phi travel guide / Phuket tourist map / Patong Beach map / Phuket hotels / Krabi and Railay travel guide / Thailand visa guide / Thailand destinations / Hospitals in Thailand / Hospitals in Thailand / All hospitals

Travel information, not medical advice.

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