Rajavithi Hospital () is large public hospital located in Ratchathewi District,

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. It was founded in 1951 as the Women's Hospital, and is operated by the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Medical Services. With an inpatient capacity of 1,200 beds, it is one of the largest hospitals in Thailand. It serves as a teaching hospital for the College of Medicine, Rangsit University.

History

Rajavithi Hospital was founded as the Women's Hospital under the premiership of

Plaek Phibunsongkhram Plaek Phibunsongkhram; 14 July 1897 – 11 June 1964) was a Thai military officer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Thailand from 1938 to 1944 and again from 1948 to 1957. He rose to power as a leading member of the Kh ...

, as part of his policy to establish large medical centres in Bangkok. Construction began in 1947, undertaken by the Department of Civil Engineering. The original buildings, designed in modified

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

, included an administration and outpatient building, a surgery and labour building, two patient wards, and staff residences. The hospital was officially opened on 16 April 1951, becoming the country's first specialized hospital for women's health. One of the hospital's pioneers was Dr Sem Pringpuangkeo, who was director from 1951 to 1963 and in 1956 oversaw the successful separation of

conjoined twins Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined '' in utero''. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 50,000 births to one in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in south ...

Wandee and Sriwan, the first such case in Thai history. He also founded the next-door

Children's Hospital A children's hospital (CH) is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults from birth up to until age 18, and through age 21 and older in the United States. In certain special cases, the ...

, in 1954. The hospital gradually diversified its patient services, adding surgery, internal medicine, and otolaryngology departments. But obstetrics for a long time remained the hospital's core service, seeing as many as 30,000 births yearly during 1960–1964. In 1976, the hospital changed its policies to provide general healthcare as well and was renamed Rajavithi Hospital, a name conferred upon by King

Bhumibol Adulyadej Bhumibol Adulyadej (5 December 192713 October 2016), titled Rama IX, was King of Thailand from 1946 until Death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej, his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any List of Thai mo ...

. In 1988, the hospital opened its heart centre and was the first in Asia to successfully operate a

heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedure is to take a functioning heart ...

using the 'Domino' procedure. Rajavithi Hospital started providing medical education for students of the College of Medicine, Rangsit University since 1 June 1992. Students in this group also study at the

Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health () is large public hospital located in Ratchathewi District, Bangkok, Thailand. It serves as a teaching hospital for the College of Medicine, Rangsit University. History With plans to expand th ...

as a teaching hospital.

Services

Rajavithi Hospital serves as the Department of Medical Services' largest tertiary referral centre, and is a major organ transplant facility. It also operates a large trauma unit, and its Narenthorn EMS Center, established in 1995, was the country's first

emergency medical service Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to ...

provider. The hospital has about 250 medical doctors on staff, has 1,200 inpatient beds, and treats up to 1 million outpatients annually.

References

* This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Thai Wikipedia

External links

* {{Coord, 13, 45, 50, N, 100, 32, 10, E, type:landmark, display=title Teaching hospitals in Thailand Hospitals in Bangkok

History

Services

See also

References

External links