Referral Services
The Referral Services Program is HFA-BCMF's flagship program, started when BCMF was founded in 2006. Initially established to support children and young adults in need of advanced surgical treatment that is unavailable in local hospitals and largely unaffordable, BCMF has since extended support to people of all ages experiencing a range of medical conditions requiring surgery. Learn more about the kinds of medical conditions we support treatment for on our Conditions we treat page.
Three young patients supported by the Referral Services Program sit together with their teddy bears before departure.
Patients supported by the Referral Services Program come from across Burma and the Thailand-Burma border area, including internally displaced person (IDP) and refugee camps. They are referred to BCMF by partner organisations, former patients, or hospitals, or private individuals when they cannot afford their required treatment, which can range in cost from 30,000 THB to over 100,000 or even 1 million THB, or when they cannot access the treatment in other Thai hospitals due to a lack of legal documentation, language barriers, and/or the lack of funds to pay for travel expenses. When accepted by BCMF, patients are interviewed both before and after their procedures in order to gain a clear understanding of their condition and history and to ensure thorough monitoring and evaluation. The number of patients served by the Referral Services Program continues to increase every year, in part due to the ongoing civil war in Burma and due to the overall decrease in international development funding globally.
When possible, patients are treated at local hospitals, but those who require more complex procedures are sent to hospitals in Chiang Mai or Bangkok. There they and a caregiver stay at patient houses providing safe accommodation and support engaging with the hospital where the patient is undergoing treatment. See below for information about the patient houses and other features of the Referral Services Program.