Healthcare demand has hospitals in Northeast close to ‘collapse’

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Healthcare demand has hospitals in Northeast close to ‘collapse’

By Pornpan Phetchsaen 
The Nation

 

Photo Courtesy of Facebook.com/thiravat.hemachudha 

 

Overcrowding at some hospitals in the Northeast has resulted in complaints about overworked staff verbally chastising people seeking treatment.

 

One elderly woman seeking free treatment under the universal healthcare scheme has twice been told at Khon Kaen Hospital she should be seeking help elsewhere, her son said this week.

 

He took his distressed mother to the hospital early Wednesday morning, only to be berated by a staff member in the X-ray department whom he described as “overwhelmed and sleep-deprived”.

 

The unnamed staff member claimed the hospital was so overwhelmed by people seeking free treatment that the staff was going without sleep.

 

He was told he should have taken his mother to a hospital closer to their home that was “as quiet as a graveyard”.

 

The woman was found to be suffering from an inflamed abdominal muscle, treated and released after a few hours.

 

 

But the son said they’d gone through this on September 11 too, after a doctor at a clinic in Maha Sarakham determined that his mum’s kidney was swollen and she needed to go to Khon Kaen Hospital where she was registered.

 

A hospital staff member who was neither a nurse nor a doctor told his mother she should next time go to a hospital nearer her home and, if she could afford it, to a private hospital.

 

Wednesday’s visit was necessary because she was in severe pain, though the doctor had made a follow-up appointment for her on November 7.

 

Dr Thiravat Hemachudha of the Emerging Infectious Disease Health Science Centre at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok posted photos on Facebook of a crowded ward at an unidentified hospital in the Northeast.

 

He cited one ward that was handling 70 to 80 patients when it was only designed for 28.

 

There are two healthcare teams per ward – a staff doctor, two R1 and R3 resident doctor-students, an intern, an ex-tern medical student and one or two senior medical students –  and they divide the 70 to 80 cases between them, he said. 

 

In one afternoon on his watch, 42 new patients were admitted to a single ward, he said.

 

“We are reaching the near-sunken point. Despite our best effort to keep rowing, the ship will soon sink,” he wrote. “Instead of criticising the treatment, people should accept the truth of this current ‘near-collapsed’ condition.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30355703

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-03

[canopus1969]

and that is why I have Private Medical Insurance !

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

and that is why I have Private Medical Insurance !

 

2 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

and that is why I have Private Medical Insurance !

Indeed, and the private health care and hospitals are slowly destroying the state run health care and hospitals.

Also, the Thai people on the 30 baht scheme don't want to visit the smaller state clinics and smaller hospital, they all want to go to the big hospital.

[Burma Bill]

2 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

and that is why I have Private Medical Insurance !

Great but being an insulin dependent Type 2 diabetic Private Medical Insurance is definitely a "no no" (even back in the UK). I have to purchase insulin from my local government hospital which (yesterday) was totally overcrowded.

[Bangkok Barry]

As a nearly retired 70-year-old, I can't afford the astronomic private health insurance prices. When my time comes I will die in my own bed, thanks, rather than in a ward such as in the photo above. Not a nice place to spend my final days, as a close friend of mine did. That's not for me.

[Torrens54]

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

As a nearly retired 70-year-old, I can't afford the astronomic private health insurance prices. When my time comes I will die in my own bed, thanks, rather than in a ward such as in the photo above. Not a nice place to spend my final days, as a close friend of mine did. That's not for me.

Know how you feel. Dropped my Private Health Care from abroad to take the Insurance offered by the previous ( elected Thai Gvt.,) All was well till “Herr General” pulled the plug on that system...now I don’t have ANY coverage.

[Time Traveller]

14 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

and that is why I have Private Medical Insurance !

and this is why I own shares in Insurance companies and don't have private medical insurance. Thanks for your contribution.

[superal]

13 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

As a nearly retired 70-year-old, I can't afford the astronomic private health insurance prices. When my time comes I will die in my own bed, thanks, rather than in a ward such as in the photo above. Not a nice place to spend my final days, as a close friend of mine did. That's not for me.

I reckon that majority of expats living in Thailand do not carry medical insurance because of the high premiums especially if you are over the age of 70 years old . The general consensus seems to be to hop on a flight to their home country in the event of a serious health problem .  I did have 5 month travel insurance that has expired which was a reasonable cost that covered all medical and associated travel claims . Just had a quote from Cigna at nearly 400 pounds a month for medical insurance. That reduced when a high excess was applied to just under 300 pounds .  At the moment I pay for any medical treatment and it is reasonable ( n/east gov hospital ) . I may soon need an op for bursitis and the cost is 10,000 baht to include 3 nights in a VIP room .  Seems to me that given the amount of expats in Thailand , maybe a mandatory levy should be in place to cover medical costs with maybe a 2 tier system allowing basic or VIP hospital care .

[MartinBangkok]

17 hours ago, hansnl said:

 

Indeed, and the private health care and hospitals are slowly destroying the state run health care and hospitals.

Also, the Thai people on the 30 baht scheme don't want to visit the smaller state clinics and smaller hospital, they all want to go to the big hospital.

hansnl, are you sure you were 100% awake when you wrote this?