PHUKET, Thailand/TOKYO -- The tourism high season has begun on southern Thailand's resort island of Phuket. For the head of the island's biggest hospital, the coming months will be anything but a vacation.
Every year, Vachira Phuket Hospital accepts thousands of foreign patients -- many of them during the dry months from November to March, when millions of holidaymakers come for the blissful beaches, historic old town and wild nightlife.