5,000 liters of alcohol delivered by Panthera Group to Bangkok hospitals

Panthera Group, Thailand’s leading conglomerate of entertainment, law and marketing companies, is working to ensure Covid-19 patients checking into Bangkok hospitals get better, not worse.

“Covid is not the only thing to worry about in hospitals,” said Paul Hayward, co-founder of Panthera, one of the country’s largest entertainment operators and the force behind a range of law, marketing, security, and business-development firms. “Intensive-care wards become major risks if they are not sterile.”

Unfortunately, Hayward said, the sheer volume of coronavirus patients flooding Bangkok hospitals since early April combined with limited budgets have resulted in shortages of crucial disinfecting alcohol.

Having already donated more than 2,000 personal-protection suits to a half-dozen Bangkok conventional and field hospitals, Panthera Group enquired how many liters of alcohol they needed. The total they came back with was 5,000 liters.

During the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals have been buying alcohol in bulk, placing a tank in a parking lot, and requiring employees to continually refill smaller containers. Hayward set out to resolve that inefficiency and opted to purchase 1,000 five-liter bottles instead.

“This lets them put the alcohol in a stock room instead of constantly sending employees out to refill containers and not know how much alcohol is left in the tank,” Hayward said.

Amid the third coronavirus wave, however, alcohol is in short supply and prices have increased dramatically. Rather than haggle over prices, Hayward said Panthera Group chose to put need ahead of budget and bought the 5,000 liters at market price.

“If you’re willing to pay, you can get it,” he said.

In exchange for paying premium prices, Panthera demanded – and received – quick delivery. Hayward said the 5,000-liter containers were delivered to hospitals within hours.

Since the onset of the third wave in early April, Panthera Group, co-founded by Hayward and Michael Doherty, has donated more than a half-million baht to hospitals and community groups for the purchase of personal protection equipment, disinfectant, and food boxes for workers affected by shutdowns of the group’s many bars, nightclubs, and restaurants.