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Australian visitors - mostly males in their thirties without health insurance - are straining public hospital budgets in Phuket, according to an Australian media report.
The southern resort island is popular not only with tourists, but also retirees and long-term foreign residents lured by the lower cost of living.
But the public hospital system is facing an increasing financial burden from the high expense of caring for ill, cash-strapped foreign visitors, said the report by 7News.
At Vachira Public Hospital alone, the cost of carfing for foreigners is about 4 million baht a year.
Dr Nara Kingkaew, deputy director of the hospital, said Australians were among the leading foreign patients seeking care at public hospitals because they don't have insurance.
"It's a big problem because it's a great burden for us to look after the foreigners, especially the Westerners who come to Thailand without any health insurance and then they fall sick or are met with an accident," Dr Nara told Australian Associated Press.
There are about 30,000 Australians on Phuket in any given month out of a total of about 900,000 Australian visitors to Thailand each year.
Russians, Britons and Germans are also present on Phuket in large numbers.
Dr Nara recalled the case of one Australian man who fell from a Patong Beach hotel and spent several months in hospital recuperating from his injuries, including broken legs and hips, before being discharged. He was unable to pay the cost of his hospital stay, which amounted to about A$10,000, or 285,000 baht.
Foreigners in accidents are initially taken to private hospitals, but are often moved to public hospitals if they have no insurance or once their funds are exhausted.
Dr Nara said his hospital faced expenses each year of more than 4 million baht caring for foreigners, not only as patients but also those who die and whose bodies are not claimed.
The hospital by law must cremate or dispose of the body after 30 or 60 days after notifying the embassy if no relatives come forward.
Australian victims are often males, aged 30 to 35 years, who had been drinking before having an accident, often from crashing rented motorbikes.
He also pointed to a significant percentage of foreign retirees who use the hospitals.
Larry Cunningham, Australia's honorary consul on Phuket, says the issue of foreigners as a burden on public hospitals was growing.
"It's just not fair. I mean the retirees are blocking up the hospital," Mr Cunningham told AAP.
"Every time you go to Vachira [Hospital], there's a farang guy sitting there, legs in plaster, arms in a sling, bits off him everywhere, being wheeled out and they are blocking up the public health system."
The Thai Public Health Ministry has called for all visitors to be required to pay for health insurance at immigration checkpoints or to have the fee incorporated in their air tickets.
Dr Nara agrees. "That is a good thing for us because when they get insurance as they enter the kingdom, when they fall sick or they meet with an accident, they will have someone to pay for them. Otherwise the hospital has to spend a lot of money for the foreigners."
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