About our two clinics on Koh Phi Phi
Doctor Phi Phi Takecare Clinic is a doctor-staffed medical clinic on Koh Phi Phi with
two branches on the island, both open 24 hours, every day. There
is no appointment system, no referral requirement and no Thai residency requirement. You arrive, you
are seen, and you are told what something costs before it is done.
The arithmetic of being on an island
Koh Phi Phi has no hospital, no roads, no cars and no ambulance service. The nearest emergency
department is around two hours away across open water. Scheduled ferries run in daylight and are
cancelled in rough weather. After dark, leaving the island means chartering a boat and finding
somebody willing to take it.
That single set of facts shapes every medical decision made here. On the mainland, “see how it
goes overnight and go to hospital in the morning if it is worse” is reasonable advice. Here it means
committing to a night with no options, on an island where the next crossing might be twelve hours
away. So we assess earlier, transfer earlier, and keep the doors open at hours when nothing else on
the island is.
A normal night here
The pattern is consistent enough to describe. Burns from the fire shows on Loh Dalum, from about
ten at night onwards. Cuts and ankles from the beach path and the viewpoint steps in the dark.
Somebody whose friend has stopped making sense after a bucket. Divers with ear pain
that started on the afternoon boat and has not settled. Stomach illness that peaks around three in
the morning, when people finally decide they cannot keep going.
None of that is unusual and none of it needs an apology. Nobody here minds being woken, because
being woken is the job.
Two branches, ten minutes apart
The Phi Phi Pier Branch sits in the middle of Tonsai Village, a short walk from the main
pier — the one most people can reach fastest. The Phi Phi Andaman Beach Branch is about ten
minutes further on foot, towards Andaman Beach.
Both are doctor-staffed, both are open 24 hours, every day, and both take walk-ins on the same
number. There is no triage difference between them and no need to work out which is the “main” one.
Go to whichever is closer, and if you are not sure, call and we will tell you. Addresses and map
links for both are on the contact page.
Who comes through the door
Divers and dive professionals, backpackers, families on the beaches, day-trippers off the Maya Bay
boats, and the substantial population of people who work this island through the season and rarely
see a doctor otherwise.
Most arrive with no medical records, no Thai, and a reasonable wish to understand what is wrong
and what it costs before agreeing to anything. That is the ordinary case here, not the difficult one,
and the clinic is set up around it rather than around it being an exception.
What is actually on the island
- Walk-in consultations at any hour, at both branches
- Urgent and emergency care — oxygen, IV medication, adrenaline, cardiac monitoring
- Same-visit blood tests, including dengue and full blood counts
- Stitches, wound care and minor surgery
- Burn treatment, including the fire show burns this island produces nightly
- IV drips for dehydration, stomach illness and heavy nights
- Rabies vaccination after a Monkey Beach bite
- Dive medicals, and assessment after a dive that did not feel right
- Doctor hotel visits, on foot across the village
What is not on the island, said plainly
This is a clinic, not a hospital. There is no X-ray, no CT scanner, no operating theatre, no blood
bank, no inpatient beds and no recompression chamber anywhere on Koh Phi Phi. Anything needing
imaging, surgery, transfusion, admission or recompression goes to Krabi or Phuket.
Saying so is not a disclaimer. It is the reason evacuation and hospital transfer
is a service rather than a shrug: stabilising you, calling ahead so the receiving hospital is
expecting you by name, and arranging the boat and the ambulance so that the two connect instead of
you waiting on a pier for whichever turns up first.
For anything threatening life, breathing or the brain, call 1669 and call us at
the same time. Two calls in parallel beats two in sequence, and on this island the parallel one saves
the most time.
Costs and paperwork
Prices are given before treatment, not after. Payment is at the end of the visit, cash or card,
and you leave with an itemised receipt and an English medical report — between them, the two
documents almost every travel insurer asks for.
If you dive, read your policy before you need it rather than after. A great many travel policies
exclude scuba diving outright, or cap it well below the depth you are certified for, and a good
number also exclude fire-related activities and anything sustained after drinking. See
travel insurance claims, and ask for the paperwork at
the first visit rather than reconstructing it from another country.
Part of the Takecare network
Doctor Phi Phi Takecare Clinic is part of Takecare Clinic group, operating across Krabi and Phuket. That is what makes
onward referral straightforward — treatment that starts on the island continues on the mainland
without you having to explain it again from the beginning.