smallbear

Just a bit of further advice for anyone in a similar position who has been at the receiving end of the Thai medical standards. The best thing before entering into discussions with the hospital is to get legal advice. Although the legal system in Thailand does not offer much protection by Western standards, there are various avenues with which to obtain justice and although cost is an issue, if people do pursue claims, it can only help to improve standards.

The Thai Medical Council's number is 02-5901880. The web site address www.tmc.or.th but is only in Thai.

It's slightly difficult to see what the Mazda 3 has going for it, judging from these posts. My feeling is that with the cheap seats, the acres of plastic in the interior, the poor leg room and the poor fuel consumption, the only advantage is the unconventional styling.

I have got rather fed up with three things here...

1) Car paint choices are all boring silver, black, white.

2) Not many hatchbacks - just old fashioned saloons from the 1970s.

3) Lack of choice because of Japanese dominance in the market.

So when I saw the Mazda 3 become more popular, I was attracted to it. There are some unusual colours, nice styling and it's a hatch back... which the Thais don't get. So I wanted something different to the norm.

I may end up going for it, just simply out of frustration but I will miss the nice interior of the Camry. I also can't bear buying things that Thais buy.

he just got on the phone and was yapping away with a golf buddy while I waited to tell him 'no thanks'.

This is interesting because I have noticed in the two Thai hospitals I've used, Samitivej and Bumrungrad, that the doctors' mobile phones are often ringing and interrupting the conversation. I don't like it very much. I know the calls are often medically related, but it's still inconvenient. This was happening yesterday, when I went back to show him the injury they'd caused.

I also find that Thais in a professional position do not always give their full attention whilst one is in dialogue with them, and easily get distracted, speaking to others and also serving other customers at the same time, instead of dealing with a single customer at a time.

You can also consider reporting the incident to the JCI (Joint Commission International, which accredits hospitals). http://www.jointcomm....org/About-JCI/

http://www.jointcomm...g/asia-pacific/

Bumrungrad is JCI accredited and JCI has an interest in any issues of quality in hospitals it accredits.

Thanks Sheryl, for this information. Yes, I appreciate your point about not knowing the details, but I deliberately wanted to avoid giving details of what they were, because it is my personal information. Apologies for that.

May I ask if you are a healthcare specialist and if so if you are based here?

but I spent 4,000 B for good advice from a lawyer and he told me that Thailand does not recognise punitive Damage laws, so it was not worth my while taking them to court

Your case sounds quite frightening. Sorry to hear about it. The fact that the doctor corrected the mistake could be applauded, but the matter is not as simple as that - your life was at risk, through negligence, and frankly it's too late. It should not happen in the first place, and corrective action needs to be continually applied in order to prevent accidents happening. We see this proactive stance in the Western world, but it does not happen in Thailand. People do not 'question'.

I think increasingly so, since living here, that the standard practice in Thailand is to leave things to chance. Communication is often poor, even between Thais, and people sometimes act in a negligent and careless way. One only has to look at the accidents on the roads and the fact that very little, if anything, is done to correct the problem.

The medical care is surprisingly lax, even though on the face of things the hospital presents a first-rate image. It's easy to present that image but when one discusses medical problems with the doctors, they seem to lack the ability to get to the finer detail of things.

I know that care in the developed world often has its problems and I accept that problems will always occur, but the difference is that corrective action is carried out in the West, in order to prevent recurrence. We can rely on a functional legal system to fall back on, but here the legal system is mostly dysfunctional. This then inhibits the incentive to resolve problems, because there's little or no redress.

Thanks for writing back about your problems, Thaipauly.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I think to try and gain some satisfaction go all the way to the top and report this. They cannot correct a problem unless it is exposed to the top. These types of mistakes happen worlwide and the only way to confront it is to go on up.

I have been advised to put the matter in the hands of a malpractice lawyer, before contacting them.

Thanks for the replies. The car we looked at was a 2.0 litre but I don't know any more details than that. I don't think the rest of the spec. was very high, unless I'm mistaken.

As for leather, I'm not sure it was, because there was just no leather smell in the car, but just PVC. Another notable thing was the severe lack of leg room in the rear. It was almost non-existent.

I really like the styling of the car, but interior I found so disappointing and it's the interior quality that I like. The plastic panels around the foot area were black and scuffed and very hard and cheap plastic, making the car look low quality. In the Camry, they are more concealed and away from being kicked when one enters the car.

Resale values are supposed not to be very good, according to another owner I've spoken with. Weighing things up, it seems to me that the Mazda 3 is a car you buy because you happen to like it, despite its disadvantages.

I have been interested in the Mazda 3 - the shape and styling a welcome change from the boringly-styled Toyotas. When we looked at one in the mall this weekend I was disappointed with the interior. On opening the door and looking inside, there wasn't a "new car smell" at all, but just a cheap smell of new PVC.

It seemed to me that the seat facings were PVC and not leather. There was no leather smell and the seat surface was very soft indeed, just like it was plastic. I am correct that they are not leather seats? The price was just over 1m.

The interior is just black plastic everywhere. It's not really the car I had expected and consequently not sure what the answer is. The Camry I've had since the new model came out is boring to drive - it's not a driver's car by any means - the brakes are useless but at least the interior is quite classy.

Would be interested to see a high-spec Mazda 3 but then I'm sure the price would be out of its class, so it starts to look like a Camry would be a better option again!

Thanks indeed to both of the above posters. I returned to Bumrungrad today for my follow-up consultation and although initially the department that carried out the procedure denied any wrong-doing on my arrival, after visiting the referring specialist and showing the photographs I took of the injury last night, and of course re-examining me, he agreed with me that the procedure was carried out incorrectly, resulting in an injury to me.

He said that he had often told them how to carry out the procedure, but that it was not understood. He added that he would contact them and tell them what to do. He offered to instruct them to carry out another procedure free-of-charge, but frankly I cannot contemplate going through with it.

It appears that the department lied to me yesterday, by saying that he used a very small dose and that is why the procedure failed. In fact, the procedure failed because the dose was administered in the wrong place and caused an adverse effect, in a very tender and unsuitable location.

Now I am left with an ugly scar, a lot of pain and anxiety from the whole incident.

The couch on which I was lying yesterday was soaking wet with sweat, from the intense pain and stress from the whole event. It was really a nightmare and I cannot face going through it again with such an incompetent member of staff. On top of this, the doctor is supposed to be the best at Bumrungrad for this surgical procedure.

As for the legal process, I was asked to sign a disclaimer form prior to the consultation, agreeing that in the event of a claim, I would only use the Thailand legal process and not an International legal system. Of course, from advice I have separately received today, the Thai legal system is dysfunctional anyway, so of little use in medical cases.

My advice to anyone, is to stay away from this place and carefully consider the standards of these types of so-called International hospitals, which on the face of things show a smart and attractive facade, but in reality still lack proper standards and do very little to prevent careless accidents. My procedure was in fact very common and it is really a breakdown in Bumrungrad's training and application, that it failed me in this way.

I'd reconsider any institution here that asks the patient to waive his or her rights to using International legal processes in the event of a claim, when in fact the organisation uses the "International" image in its marketing, conveying an image of International standards, when in fact they do not stand by them in a case of poor patient care. They know of course that the Thai legal process is of little use, with its limited damages claims and coverage only of patients' fees, in the best-case scenario. This has been another lesson to me.

I'd be grateful for anyone's advice, as I don't really know where to start. I have had a simple procedure at Bumrungrad today. It involved administering an injection and then carrying out ultrasound, but the doctor has injected me in the wrong place. It caused a tremendous amount of pain but I couldn't see what he was doing, as I was lying down.

He carried on regardless but when I arrived home and after the pain had subsided, I examined myself properly and found that the injection site is completely in the wrong place, according to what their own document says it should be, and on all the medical web sites that give advice about my problem.

He never told me what had happened, but I feel there's a strong chance he would have seen what went wrong during the work, because the injection is meant to cause something to show up on the scan. He said that nothing showed, but didn't elaborate.

The cost was 12,000-13,000 for this procedure today and I expressed my concerns about it beforehand. It should have been a simple process but time and time again, in this country, I find that things go wrong that shouldn't, because of lack of care and general carelessness.

What should I do? I know their English isn't very good even at the best of times and I feel that I won't be able to get anything done. Is there is legal process that one can take?

Thanks.

Try these people. http://concept-event...g.blogspot.com/

Many thanks - that looks ideal.

...if so have a talk to Thai industrial gas (TIG)

Thanks - I will try to locate them.

We're trying to source a party balloon gas supplier but the only one we have found, Balloon Art Co. Ltd on Pattanagarn Road has offered us a crazy high price and after asking why it's so expensive, they refuse to answer any more of my messages.

Can anyone suggest somewhere please? Perhaps we could go to the manufacturer of the gas supply rather than retail?

It's a very sorry tale, kuffti and I sympathise with you very much. Although I haven't bought a car from a dealer in the normal way, I've been on the receiving-end of this lethargic sales attitude before and I quickly learned to turn around and walk off, even going without myself, if I didn't feel I was being treated with courtesy.

By contrast, I met a Thai friend-of-a-friend a year or so ago who was interested in ordering a Camry. The dealers had lent him a hybrid demonstrator car for a week with no obligation. Notably his mother is "important" - that's how it often is here - family connections sometimes mean more than common courtesy.

I personally bought a new Toyota through Expat Motors, now called Siam Motor World and the car was waiting for me on my arrival when I moved here. It was a very painless process, although I didn't test drive the car beforehand. I would do that again because frankly I can't stand the thought of going to a dealer, unless it was a Benz or Jaguar dealer, perhaps :-)

Best of luck.

I am trying to help a friend who has a Nissan Tiida saloon which is due for its 10,000km service. The dealer in Bangkok seems unwilling to give my friend clear pricing for each service interval, unlike that which I can get from Toyota, whereby they have a board inside the service reception, listing all the models, km-intervals and prices.

Not only this, but the dealer is claiming that in addition to the usual service, they also need to replace the air filter. To me, this sounds ridiculous, because the service items should unquestionably be laid down clearly by the manufacturer?

If they want to carry out a further job, such as the changing of a filter which is not normally included, I would argue that the manufacturer will have set out whether or not that item should normally be carried out on the 10,000 km service.

According to this dealer, which is near Pink Lao, Bangkok, the prices vary from one Nissan dealer to another, since they are private franchises.

Could anyone help please, and if possible let me know what they should be charging for the 10,000 km.

Many thanks indeed.

For a foreign-owned company, which according to recent news, DTAC primarily is, it's notable that the company's standard of English is very poor, not necessarily from the call centre staff but by the industry standard voice-operated options in their system.

For anyone who wishes to try, from a DTAC mobile, dial *100. This is the balance transfer system. Not only is the system outrageously complex, because during the process of balance transfer, it launches into a completely separate topic about how to check one's validity, and even after that, provides further unrelated information about a new promotion, before returning to the original purpose, but in addition the standard of English is so bad that it makes it such an ordeal.

The word "available" is pronounced as "a-vile-abul". I can't believe DTAC, a foreign company, considers this acceptable on a voice system.

It also reverts back to Thai language, even after selecting English option (9).

Can anyone try and see if they can get on ok with it? I'd be interested. Sure, if one needs help, the call centre is there... for a fee of course.

Also remembers thais do not care if food tastes good.

I started out loving Thai food, but it was in the days that I used to visit only for holidays. I was happy to eat fancy and pricey Thai food, such as seafood buffets and some of the royal-style cuisine that you see in the nicer hotels. I loved it very much and still do. But is it very healthy? Not really.

After settling here, I went through a stage of eating street food most evenings because I found it fun, convenient and relatively inexpensive. However I'm absolutely convinced that my heath deteriorated a lot during that year or two. I lost a lot of weight and got ill for no reason. Eventually my lifestyle changed and I stayed at home and cooked for myself every night. I switched back to Western food with potatoes, fresh vegetables and interesting salads (not the Thai salad of cabbage, carrot and cucumber), and my health and strength improved immediately.

I believe that Thai people are very interested in tasty food and they love food, but in general that's as far as it goes. Quite often, the spicing-up of the food, disguises the blandness. Take out the chili and the food is just plain and of little interest. There's a staggering amount of sugar used in dishes which aren't, to my mind, suitable for sugar, unless you've got a craving for sugar.

The other thing is that a lot of food is fried. It's quite often the only method they have for cooking. Last night we went for street food. There was some fish displayed in the 'cart'. But it was already fried to oblivion - all the goodness gone from it. I remember the first time I ordered Pla Grapong and looking forward to nice white flesh. When it arrived all the flesh was like leather, and gold from the colour of the cooking oil. Ghastly. But it's normal for fried fish here.

I do enjoy steamed fish though - that's a healthy exception.

The other, often overlooked subject, is hygiene. I believe a passion for food should not just be about presenting a tasty dish, but about the storage and preparation. This is a sore subject, as I spent a night I hospital because of this...

Actually Siam Winery did not produce the Mont Clair in Thailand.

It's coming directly from South-Africa - Breede River Valley- in containers and it's bottled in Samut Sakorn.

I'm not sure if Siam Winery is the grower based in Hua Hin? We visited Hua Hin in 2009 and the representative told me that the manufacturing process is in Samut Sakorn, so reading your post rang a few bells.

I have tried some of their produce but I could only drink the white - the red was undrinkable to me, as at the time, I had been used to French wine. The comparison was just staggering. In France, the quality is brilliant and the price extremely affordable. In my experience at least, it has been the opposite of that in Thailand.

Nevertheless, at Hua Hin I was interested in trying a sample, to see if things have improved, but on asking for a taste, I was told that we had to pay!!! I really wanted to laugh, given that the previous time I'd bought anything, I found it undrinkable. I'm beginning to feel very mean writing this, but I must say, the prices and the variable quality have been getting on my nerves a bit. By way of comparison, if I think back to the 1980s when some of the newer wine-growing countries were coming on the scene, notably East European etc., one of the advantages was simply that the prices were great, even if the wine still left some improvements to make.

In Thailand however, it seems to be that the quality still isn't good enough and the price is high. The double-whammy in other words.

With some of the other posters' comments above though, referring to lack of wine-producing skills, I have heard before of French and other European experts being employed by the Thai growers. I'm sure these people are some of the best in the industry, so don't wish to knock them in any way. I'm sure their task must be a tremendous challenge. Notwithstanding this, the quality of wine production in Thailand clearly has a lot of catching up to do.

And frankly they need to tempt buyers with better prices, rather than arrogance, dare it say it?

Thai #1 in everything. if they ask for less than farang wine they lose face. They'd rather have little sales than offering at a low price.

Yes, I was thinking along those lines earlier today in fact. I didn't like to write it in my post in case it upset anyone. Well, Thailand has a lot of work to do to compete with the quality, variety and price from the rest of the wine-producing world. The only Thai wine I have enjoyed is the white Cabernet from Monsoon Valley, but all the red wine I have tried, was disgusting.

The previous poster has mentioned something about the taxes. The oddity is that the local wine tax is extremely high, but the cheap spirits with higher alcohol content, such as Thai brandy (which they call whiskey) and worse stuff too, is just a few Baht.

But there is no actual cache server in thailand.

This sounds like a different approach to the cache solution mentioned in Rakman's reply. In that case, why would the domain shown in Youtube refer to TOT cache?

Irrespective of that however, if Google Inc. has its dedicated line, that would offer a significant advantage because the International bandwidth of that line would not be shared with other traffic. I'm amazed that a corporation can get its own line circumventing any existing connection into an entire country. It's rather disconcerting that a corporation can wield such power.

I've been surprised in the past that Thai wine is not substantially cheaper than it is, since it presumably does not fall under the import duties. Notwithstanding this, there are taxes on Thai wine, of course. Perhaps I'm wrong that the duties are not reduced?

I have been buying Chilean, Australian, Argentinian and French recently from one of the smaller independent outlets. The quality is fine even at 319 Baht (for the Argentinian). This is just everyday swigging wine. However, the Thai red wine is clearly still lagging behind in quality, yet the price is 590+. We tried the P.B. Valley Reserve at Khao Yai some weeks ago and the price was very high and quality just really average. The Chilean imported wine I bought last week was comparable with it and at a price of only 329 Baht. The Thai wines of comparable taste and complexity are double the price.

So, why is the Thai wine relatively expensive, yet unimpressive? Is it due to profiteering, which we see so often?

There will be the Australian-Thai tax treaty coming into force soon (if not already), but I'm not sure if that will affect pricing at retail level, even though it obviously should do.

which is listed on whois:

Whois information on 118.174.24.33:

inetnum: 118.174.24.0 - 118.174.27.255

netname: totnet

descr: IP Assignment for Google Caching Systems

descr: TOT Public Company Limited

country: TH

Thanks, that sounds very clear. I'm not sure however, does this show whether the server is inside TOT, or inside Google? How do you obtain such detailed whois information from that single IP address? I normally use ip2location, but it doesn't give that address range, nor does it give the "TOT Public Company Limited".

I'm interested to know why this appears in the brower's bottom status bar, when I play a Youtube video. This has recently started to show. Clearly, the domain name from which the stream is downloaded, refers to TOT. Sure, TOT is my ISP.

Some weeks ago, many tracks on Youtube were unusable because of the slow Thailand-International Internet performance. As a resolution to this, does the presence of TOT in this domain, mean that TOT is hosting the Youtube content?

Wish her good luck from TVF on her new job!

Thanks, that's very kind. She went to get a medical test last night so that she could work there (although the work is primarily in a PR-role - not medical). They took her to the dept. in the hospital and they charged her over 800 Baht! Amazing.

We've found a good place, so I'm adding this for the benefit of anyone else who's looking for Rama 2 area. The apartment is called 14-Mansion and it is adjacent to the Bangpakog Hospital, just to its right. The room rate is 600 per night, so is fine just for a short-term place to stay. The car park is just past the hospital's entrance.

Thanks to all.