The Eastern Special Development Zone (EEC), which spans three provinces – Chachoengsao, Chonburi, and Rayong – is experiencing rapid urbanization and a high labor-force participation rate. Rayong Province has a total of seven industrial estates, industrial parks, and industrial zones.
Pluak Daeng District, in Rayong, is an area that is constantly developing due to industry expansion and increased investment in the area. With more workers and residents moving to the area, health care systems must be developed quickly to keep up with the district’s growth.
The first Pluak Daeng Hospital is a 60-bed community hospital in the EEC area that can serve only 5-8 thousand people. It would take a long time to develop it into a general hospital with 120-200 beds. Many people would be denied access to potential health services as a result of this.
Pluak Daeng Hospital 2 is therefore the model for expanding public hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health, and the first in Thailand with a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement worth 2,647 million baht. It will be a general hospital with a capacity of 200 beds that can serve over 200,000 people each year.
This project will be a Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO) joint venture, which means that a private entity designs, invests in the construction of important assets, and transfers ownership to the state immediately after construction is completed; it is supported by Special Economic Promotional Zone privileges comparable to BOI benefits, such as an 8-year corporate income tax exemption or exemption from import duty on machinery.
The Ministry of Public Health will hand over the land, as well as the five-story surgery-accident building with a budget of 232 million baht, to the private sector for the construction of additional service buildings, while also coordinating with the health insurance agency to accept it as a hospital under the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health. The private sector will decorate the construction of additional buildings and various utility systems, which will be completed within three years and transferred to the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Health, and the private sector will provide equipment and personnel to provide medical services and be responsible in the event of medical damage.
This project will provide people in the area with a large medical facility with the potential to provide services in various branches, allowing them to access standardized health services at reasonable prices, with convenience and speed, as well as effectively supporting services in the event of a disaster or epidemic in the area and reducing patient referrals to the central hospital.
The private sector or local establishments can be confident that their employees will receive timely services from standardized hospitals in the area, and they will also help create employment in the EEC area. Furthermore, it provides financial benefits to the government through land use compensation and revenue sharing from the private sector. According to the contract, the government will return ownership of the operation to the private sector for 50 years, after which all contracts will be returned to the state as before.
Source: Thai government
Office of Information, Ministry of Public Health, Building 3, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Health, Tiwanon Road, Talad Khwan Subdistrict, Mueang Nonthaburi District, Nonthaburi Province
Telephone: +66 2590 1000
Release date 16 January 2023
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