greenmonkey

I know many people on the forum champion the private Thai hospitals but to be honest I have been left feeling pretty short changed of late (no pun intended). I do acknowledge that they are very modern and clean with attentive staff and little waiting times but my general gripe is that the doctors generally seem disinterested in spending any amount of time with the patient. And they have zero interest in explaining the diagnosis and treatments (and possible side effects). This is how today's visit went for an underarm bacterial infection:

Arrived at hospital, no waiting, straight in to see the specialist. Great start! The doc took all of 30 seconds to look at my condition, tell me it was infected and that I must take antibiotics followed by a look of 'was there anything else I can do for you'. That was it, 30 seconds!!! No explanations of how I may have got it, no advice on how to treat it (other than just take the medicine and follow the instructions). I pushed for some greater insight and asked about the antibiotic treatment and if it was necessary etc but got nowhere. So I left.

Okay - now to make payment and collect medicines (the bit we all hate). I thought to myself... consultation plus pills = 2k maximum! Sat down to be greeted will a bill for just under 3k... what the $%^& could this be for!? I checked the breakdown - the usual suspects were there but what jumped out was the charge for the antibiotics - 1600 baht for standard amoxicliln. I immediately told them to remove them from the bill and told them I would buy elsewhere. The girl behind the desk happily told me I could buy them from any pharmacy for 200 Baht - she was openly telling me that the hospital was ripping me off without even realizing it. Thanks for that!

One of the other other medicines they gave me was an antiseptic cream - i took it from them as it was about 100 baht. However, after looking it up on the net I decided against using it as it was advised to be used only for serious life threatening occassions due to the serious side effects it poses such as damage to the bone marrow. What the "£$% is this I thought to myself. Why are they prescribing this to me for a minor bacterial infection!??? There was no warning from anyone in the hospital about the side effects. This is what really angered me. Forget about the price gouging - i was ready for that and knew not to take it. But this... this I cannot accept. And is not the first time this has happened. Anyone else had similar experiences or am I just unlucky (or choosing a bad hospital)?

2 hours ago, RobU said:

A dog killed one of our cats it had previously attacked and injured a goat and threatened members of my fiancés family, there were other incidents in the village. The owner knew all of this yet continued to allow it to roam free, it has since disappeared, hopefully to a shallow grave somewhere in the forest. The owner claims to be a nice guy and even my fiancé says that he is. My opinion was that he should have been charged and incarcerated. Once a dog has killed in this way it will go after other small helpless animals including children. These animals don't see the difference between a human being and another animal they are only loyal to their pack (the owner and family) and even then they will still attack children they think are usurping their pack status. Sadly child deaths and serious injury  due to dog attacks are reported in the media at least twice a year in the UK. The response of the owner is always that he dog was a 'lovely animal, friendly and playful'. The owners humanise these animals and expect human responses they forget that dogs are a dangerous animals. The smallest dog can rip a child's face to shreds and this has also happened in the UK.

I just DON'T get this mentality that seems to be the norm here. If I knew there was even the smallest chance that someone might get hurt because I did not take certain steps - i would not be able to sleep at night. Yet these certain types of people just don't seem to give a damn.

Thailand will have a REAL problem very soon with pitbulls... at the moment so many Thai's are buying them and once the novelty wears off what then!? They get 'donated' to the local Wat where they will start breeding with the soi dogs... and then the real fun and games begins. Absolutely crazy that this is being allowed to happen.

he said it was just "one of those things". Unbelievable.

57 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

It happened on a bend (see the linked article). Which explains everything. Bends are hard when you don't know how to drive properly.

the driver's excuse probably went along the lines of "it wasn't my fault, it was the roads fault due to the sharp bend".

25 minutes ago, Whale said:

Yet another one who was born into money. Can we not have a story about someone who was born to a rice farmer and has made it on their own? Or are there not any because wealth begets wealth? 

i find it quite odd here how Thai's have much more admiration and respect for the rich Thai's that inherited all their wealth compared to those that made it all from nothing. I'll never understand this...

there was a much bigger outcry when some dumb farang diver picked up a sea cucumber and then put it back. This country never ceases to baffle me...

How ironic, she is the owner of a debt recovery agency!!!! ????

My word how dumb is this person to not know that these types of gambling games are always rigged. No sympathy.

Unbelievable!

I feel a trip to the local monkhood is imminent!

I never knew that alcohol breath tests were optional!

its disgraceful that the monkhood allows such blatent misuse of their services. This scumbag apparently didn't show any remorse at all... tried to cover up what he'd done and now as a last resort the monkhood.... anything except take his punishment. Disgraceful.

I'm assuming the 400k has been in the bank for 2 months or longer? I say go back with all the required docs and insist on processing the application (record the whole conversation on your phone when in attendance). If they continue on about the 800k then you simply ask for a detailed explaination of why they need it and  request a signed piece of paperwork explaining the need for the 800k requirement so you can query this elsewhere. If it is not forthcoming ask to see the supervisor and request the same from them. Let's see how confident they are to put their name to this.

Don't take any of their s@@t.... once you cave in and pander tho their demands they will have you by the short and curlies and expect it everytime.