Nursing Home
during a walk, and if walking isn’t an option maybe the swimming pool pool right next to the outside dining table is. Every guest has their own room with en-suite bathroom in this villa, which has massage facilities as well as every other necessary equipment needed for providing a pleasant stay, and a pleasant stay is exactly what Anita and her trained staff wants to offer. “You eat when you are hungry it doesn’t have to be at a certain time. If you want to have your morning coffee at 9am then that is what you do, why should we decide when and what you eat, if there is no health problems preventing your wishes?” Anita asks without waiting for an answer. ”I get such a pleasure out of seeing our guests smiling. Even though not every guest is reachable I can feel that they are happy being here,” says Anita Somaini, emphasizing that keeping her nursing home small is another deliberate decision she made as she opened the doors to care taking on Phuket.
like a small family. We are dependent on each other and we take care of each other. If a nursing home gets too big it is easy to leave the ‘difficult’ patients in a corner. Here we can have focus on all our guests,” says Anita. The Baan Tschuai Duu Lää nursing home takes both long-term and short-term patients, but the rumor of the family atmosphere has already spread to people, who are still doing well on their own, making for a couple of interesting requests. ”We have had elderly people asking if they could come here even though they didn’t need any assistance, but then we have to tell them that we only take guests who require care to some degree, because the rest of Phuket offers splendid resorts,” says Anita and starts laughing. Like at the resorts it is not free to stay at the Baan Tschuai Duu Lää. A full board stay in these luxurious surroundings will cost you between 65 – 100 Euros a day, depending on which type of care and medicine you need, but then there will be no other added costs.
I want it to be a small family
The paradox of the European health care system
At the moment the Nursing home can only host four guests and even though expansion possibilities are available 8 - 12 guests will be the maximum. “It is important for me that we are
upset. She has no understanding why governments or health care insurance agencies do not support health care abroad. “I really don’t get it! If they decided to support their countrymen staying at a nursing home here in Thailand it would cost them only half of what they pay today to keep the elderly in a nursing home back home. And we take better care of them. It’s insane,” says Anita Somaini and shakes her head as if she doesn’t believe her own words. For some Scandinavian people, support is possible. Some Norwegian municipalities have e.g. opened up for
the financial support, but it is one of the only countries doing so, much to the regret of Anita Somaini. Not because she wants to make more money, but simply because it doesn’t make sense. “When we don’t want more than 8 – 12 guests it’s never going to be a cash cow, so that’s not the reason, says Anita, who runs her business on one simple rule. “I refuse to reduce our high standards. I have seen too much of that in my life. If we are forced to do so, then I would rather close down, fortunately nothing points in that direction.”
The lack of government support from countries in Scandinavia or elsewhere in Europe for nursing homes like Baan Tschuai Duu Lää is something that can get Anita quite
November 2012 • ScandAsia.Thailand 45