Thailand’s Silpa-archa family, a political dynasty spanning decades in Suphan Buri, has donated 92 rai of land worth more than 150 million baht to Chao Phraya Yommarat Hospital in Suphan Buri, clearing the way for a second hospital campus and a new rehabilitation and elderly care centre.
Industry Minister Varawut Silpa-archa handed over the land on August 20 alongside his wife Suwanna and other family members, at a ceremony at Suan Dusit University’s Suphan Buri campus. Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat presided over the handover, joined by Bhumjaithai MPs for Suphan Buri and senior health ministry officials.
Varawut said the hospital has grown increasingly crowded as more patients from Suphan Buri and neighbouring provinces seek treatment there, and that he had long wanted to donate land to ease the pressure. He said the family has several hundred rai more available if the new site still isn’t enough.
Of the donated land, just over 29 rai will support development of Thai traditional medicine services, while a strip roughly 40 metres wide and nearly 400 metres long will become a four-lane road connecting the site, built without a central median to cut long-term maintenance costs.
The site sits next to Suan Dusit University, which officials say could open the door to future collaboration, and planning documents for the project include space for a helicopter landing pad. Varawut said the province would welcome it if the Public Health Ministry eventually funds a helicopter for the site.
The planned second campus includes a five-storey outpatient building, a five-storey critical and inpatient care building, a six-storey elderly care building, staff housing, water and wastewater systems, a 350-car parking area, and a 1.1-kilometre perimeter fence, among other infrastructure.
Varawut linked the donation to his father, former Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa, who championed public health funding in Suphan Buri for years. He recalled that Banharn once donated 40 rai of what would have been his own inheritance for a sports centre for people with disabilities, and said he had now told his three children they would do the same before eventually buying new land of their own.
After the handover ceremony, Varawut joined Pattana for the kickoff of Suphan Buri’s community nursing volunteer programme and met with health workers and village health volunteers, before visiting the site where the new hospital campus will be built.
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