Thailand Ostomy Foundation

Since Ms Louise Forrest Lalande  and I were scheduled to do “Lions for Stoma Care “training (along with Prof. Carlo Pezcoller in Manila, Philippines from 3 rd December to 7 th December), both of us were invited to speak at Bangkok ET meeting. I spoke on “Current Status of Stoma Care in Asia “ and Mrs Louise spoke on “Current Guidelines in Wound care in Canada and; how that can be used in Thailand “. Both lectures were well received by all the participants. Conference was of very high standard with good papers.

We also had meeting with Dr Darin , a senior most Colorectal Surgeon in Siriraj hospital for discussion on having an active ostomy support group in that hospital and in Bangkok. Both Dr Darin and Ms Yuwadee Kestsumpun , a senior most ET in that hospital were not very keen on starting a support group locally. That hospital has an active stoma clinic which is run by four ETs and is well attended by many ostomates. They have local training for general nurses in Stoma Care. There are only 10-15 WCET certified ETs in Thailand but they have trained about 300 nurses in Stoma care.

We had dinner with core group of ETs and Stoma nurses from different regions and hospitals of Thailand including few Colorectal Surgeons and Ostomates in the same evening organised by Ms Chutima Chaweewan, Sales and Marketing Manager of local Coloplast Distrbutor, Pacific Health Care and her local team and Mr Eric Chan of Coloplast, Hong Kong.

During the dinner one of the ET Nurse Ms Siriluck, from Chiengmai hospital (Email:siriluck05@yahoo.com) is keen to start an ostomy patient support group locally. This is about 8oo KM north of Bangkok.

We had some local tour of Bangkok organised by Ms Chutima and Mr Eric. We visited some of the most ancient Buddhist temples including of most famous reclining Buddha.

I had meeting next day at 7-00am at the Bangkok airport for an hour (before I flew off to Manila) with Mrs Akariya Samahaputra, General Secretary of Thailand Ostomy Foundation (TOF ). We had good discussion about current state of TOF and how they work and their future plan of activities including joining as a new member of ASPOA. She told me that Mr Sanan Silapabanleang is still president and Dr Kiti Chindavijak is vice president of TOF.

They have 12 EC members and 3000 they have regular meetings of TOF in different parts of the country and Chiengmai
group always sends their representative and a nurse to their meetings. She also wants us to help them in Cheingmai to start a local ostomy support group.