Public hospital, Nai Mueang, Nong Khai — 55 km north of Udon Thani.

Nong Khai Hospital

Nong Khai’s provincial hospital — the nearest large public hospital to the Friendship Bridge, about an hour north of Udon Thani.

Ambulance and medical emergency: 1669. Tourist Police: 1155. Police: 191.

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Say “rong phayaban Nong Khai”. On Meechai Road by the river, opposite the police station and a short walk from Tha Sadet market.

The Ministry of Public Health’s general hospital for Nong Khai province, on Meechai Road a few hundred metres from the Mekong and about ten minutes from the Friendship Bridge. It is the nearest large public hospital to the crossing, and the one an ambulance takes you to if something happens on the Thai bank. Udon Thani’s bigger hospitals are an hour further south.

What it is known for

Position. Nong Khai Hospital is the province’s Ministry of Public Health general hospital, registered at around 420 beds, and it stands on Meechai Road a few hundred metres from the Mekong and about ten minutes from the Friendship Bridge. It carries the departments a provincial hospital carries — accident and emergency, medicine, surgery, obstetrics, paediatrics, intensive care — and it is the hospital that takes what happens at the border crossing and along the river. The province is a designated special economic zone on the Lao frontier, and the hospital’s own material leans on that role.

Who it suits

Anyone taken ill or hurt in Nong Khai, anyone crossing at the Friendship Bridge, and travellers without insurance who need a large public hospital rather than an hour in a car first. It is a Thai public hospital: inexpensive, busy, Thai-first, with English limited to a few staff. If the problem is serious and you have insurance, the private hospitals in Udon Thani are an hour south and better set up for foreign patients, and an ambulance can take you there.

Cost and insurance

Public-hospital prices, which for a foreigner paying cash are still far below anything private on either side of the river. Payment is at the cashier; direct billing by a foreign insurer is not something to expect here, so plan to pay and claim. Bring your passport, and if you have crossed from Laos bring your entry stamp and any insurance document with you. Ask for an itemised receipt and an English-language medical certificate before you leave — both are routine, but only if you ask.

Getting there

On Meechai Road in Nai Mueang, the old riverside part of Nong Khai, opposite the police station and a short walk from the Tha Sadet riverside market. From the Friendship Bridge it is about ten minutes by car; from Udon Thani it is 55 kilometres and roughly an hour up Highway 2, longer in the afternoon. The switchboard is +66 42 413 456, with +66 42 411 504 as a second line. For an ambulance anywhere in Thailand, call 1669.

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 4 hospitals in Udon Thani

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