สถาบันการแพทย์ฉุกเฉินแห่งชาติ

The First Anniversary of the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patient (UCEP)

Flt.Lt. Atchariya Pangma, Secretary-General of the National Institute for Emergency Medicine, expressed his satisfaction towards the first anniversary of the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patient (UCEP) since 1 April 2017. The policy has granted satisfied results. There had been 15,950 emergency patients who passed the criteria in which 45 percent of these patients were in Bangkok. Patients who would be granted with UCEP must have the following symptoms;

1) Unconscious/Not breathing;

2) Gasping/ difficulties of breathing;

3) Drowsy/sweating/seizure;

4) Acute/critical chest pain;

5) Hemiparesis/ abruptly couldn’t speak clearly; continuous seizure and

6) Other additional symptoms that can affect respiratory system, circulation and neurological system that could lead to deaths.

The most commonly found emergency medical conditions are 1) Difficulty of breathing (3,416 cases), 2) Cardiac diseases and symptoms (2,276 cases), 3) Acute paralysis (2,216 cases), 4) Unconscious or unresponsive (1,565 cases), and Cardiac arrest (1,463 cases).

The project has an objective to help emergency patients by ensuring access to emergency medical service at the nearest hospital within the first 72 hours without having to pay for the service in advance, so that the patients can get a timely and safe emergency medical service without any conditions. Organizations from different sectors, both public and private, have collaborated well with each other to deliver the services. Dr.Atchariya further claimed that there are issues which are needed to be improved i.e. patient referral to other hospitals that might risk the patients of getting worse, the revision of fee schedule that would make private health facilities satisfied and also improving common understanding between the public and service providers especially with symptoms of abdominal pain, fatigue and pediatric.

Dr.Atchariya also mentioned that if you found any medical emergencies, call 1669 immediately to request for medical assistance and transport to appropriate hospital. Though, if any citizen still doesn’t understand UCEP, they can submit their inquiry through the number 02- 872- 1669 or
e-mail address ucepcenter@niems.go.th which NIEM has already prepared the staff to clarify and provide the services for 24 hours .