Thai citizens can use any government hospital?

[NCC1701A]

I have a Thai friend who is saying they have to pay at the government hospital here in Hua Hun because they are from Surin.

They can only use Thai government health insurance in your province/home town?

Is that true?

[BritManToo]

They can use any government hospital free of charge if it's an emergency.

If it's not an emergency they can go back to their registered hospital for free treatment, or move house books and register at the new hospital for free treatment.

 

When I first got married and had a kid, I paid a little old Thai lady down the road 2000bht to register all my lot in her house book, then they all registered at my local hospital.

Edited December 22, 2019 by BritManToo

[bkk6060]

To extend.

Can any foreigner use a government hospital anywhere?

[Yinn]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

They can use any government hospital free of charge if it's an emergency.

If it's not an emergency they can go back to their registered hospital for free treatment, or move house books and register at the new hospital for free treatment.

 

When I first got married and had a kid, I paid a little old Thai lady down the road 2000bht to register all my lot in her house book, then they all registered at my local hospital.

Very good answer. 

 

also

Sometimes eg if machine is broken at the government hospital, the government hospital will give you document for do at private hospital and the government hospital will pay. 

 

if NCCA friend want to do it at Hua Hin just register the patient use NCCA housebook. 

 

 

Ps I see news today. Before Prayut was anti the 30 baht plan so much (because it Thaksin) 

But when he go to UN meeting he tell everybody it wonderful.

[billd766]

20 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

To extend.

Can any foreigner use a government hospital anywhere?

AFAIK foreigners can use any government hospital but you may have to pay a higher price. I am registered at the local hospital for the simple reason that it is only 15 km away and the county hospital is 65 km away. I know that I pay a higher price than Thais but it is still relatively cheap.

So far I have not needed to be transferred to the county hospital but if ever I am i would expect to pay the same rate as I would in the local hospital.

[NCC1701A]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

They can use any government hospital free of charge if it's an emergency.

ok. wow what a horrible policy. thank you.

 

[bkk6060]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

They can use any government hospital free of charge if it's an emergency.

If it's not an emergency they can go back to their registered hospital for free treatment, or move house books and register at the new hospital for free treatment.

 

When I first got married and had a kid, I paid a little old Thai lady down the road 2000bht to register all my lot in her house book, then they all registered at my local hospital.

I:)

My question would be what demands an emergency here?

I have never seen a country with so many runny noses going to the emergency for treatment.

 

[ukrules]

7 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

ok. wow what a horrible policy. thank you.

 

A problem is many Thai people don't change their official residence, sometimes for decades, or ever after moving province based on what I've seen.

 

 

 

[Sheryl]

As others have said, for non-emergency care Thais covered by either the regular SS scheme (through employment) or the "universal" (aka "30 baht") scheme must must use the hospital where they are registered or any other hospital that it refers them to if it is unable to provide the care needed.

 

Hospital registration under the universal scheme is based on where you are registered in a tabial ban. If living somewhere else, can and should change tabian ban listing so as to be registered at a hospital near where you live. Unfortunately many Thais do not do this, with the result that they have to travel back to another province for medical care or else pay out of pocket.

 

There are good reasons for this system and it is not at all unusual. Many countries with a national health system operate similarly and it would be difficult not to.  The government has to somehow calculate the annual budget for each hospital based on expected number of patients, and this is done based on population served. They also need to try to control the massive numbers seeking care at the highest level facilities.   If people could go anywhere they wanted, certain hospitals would be utterly overrun and others left almost idle, and budgets of some would be completely insufficient, while others would have unused funds, and  there would be no way to rationally allocate resources (budget, medications, staff).

 

What makes it more problematic in Thailand as opposed to many other countries is that (1) hospitals often try to get out of their obligation to pay for emergency care for people from outside their catchment area and people don't know their rights/are afraid to complain and (2) Very large number of people never change their tabian ban listing - fear of dealing with the bureaucracy etc (granted the bureaucracy doesn't make it super easy, but it can be done.)

 

Foreigners can use any government hospital they want as they must pay full fee regardless. In most hospitals this will be the same as what a fee paying Thai pays, only a few hospitals have established dual pricing but these are ones located in areas where they see a lot of foreign patients. 

 

Exception would be a foreigner who has SS coverage through employment. For free care, just like a Thai, they must use their nominated hospital.

 

 

[Assurancetourix]

22 minutes ago, ukrules said:

A problem is many Thai people don't change their official residence, sometimes for decades, or ever after moving province based on what I've seen.

 

 

 

This is why, although it is completely different from a registration in the hospital of his district, that during the elections half of the city of Bangkok is empty because the voters must go to vote in the province where they are registered. ;

 

To come back to the subject, I live in a very small village which has only a number, administratively speaking, when I go to the hospital of the commune on which we depend, in fact, it is a dispensary which only treats light stuff, most of the time I don't pay anything, neither the consultation nor the medicine because the staff pass this on my wife's name.
by cons when I go to the real hospital, Sawang Daen Din, I pay like Thai, no more, no less.
And it is there that we see that in the private hospitals they put their pockets full because in Sawang, a radio of the lungs or of a part of the body it is seldom more than 200 baht;
they have two rooms for X-rays, one for scintigraphy, and one for MRI;

totally useless to go and have your bank account emptied at Bangkok Hospital or similar hospital.

 

The only real difference is that almost no doctor speaks English; it therefore forced me to learn Thai, something very useful in Thailand. 

[BritManToo]

9 hours ago, billd766 said:

AFAIK foreigners can use any government hospital but you may have to pay a higher price. I am registered at the local hospital for the simple reason that it is only 15 km away and the county hospital is 65 km away. I know that I pay a higher price than Thais but it is still relatively cheap.

So far I have not needed to be transferred to the county hospital but if ever I am i would expect to pay the same rate as I would in the local hospital.

I always seem to pay the same price as an unregistered Thai at my local hospital, 50bht + meds (which are usually 1bht/pill) to see the doctor. Any tests or other procedures cost extra (blood test, x-rays, ultrasound, etc.) and are itemised on the bill.

[DavisH]

34 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

The only real difference is that almost no doctor speaks English; it therefore forced me to learn Thai, something very useful in Thailand. 

That's interesting as I've never met a Thai doctor that doesn't speak English - and most of them competently. 

[Assurancetourix]

6 minutes ago, DavisH said:

That's interesting as I've never met a Thai doctor that doesn't speak English - and most of them competently. 

I don't know where you live , but a little tour in Issan, outside the big cities, should fill in your gaps. 

[billd766]

4 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

I don't know where you live , but a little tour in Issan, outside the big cities, should fill in your gaps. 

I live in rural Khampaeng Phet and the little government surgery has 2 or 3 staff who speak English, the bigger cottage hospital about 15 km has most of the doctors and a few of the nurses and staff who speak English. Even at the small government 1st line surgery, the doctor speaks some English as do a couple of the staff speak some English too. However they don't get to practise it much.

[Sheryl]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I always seem to pay the same price as an unregistered Thai at my local hospital, 50bht + meds (which are usually 1bht/pill) to see the doctor. Any tests or other procedures cost extra (blood test, x-rays, ultrasound, etc.) and are itemised on the bill.

This is the norm. It is only a handful of hospitals that have dual oricing and thay are in places like Pattaya, Phuket etc.

[Sheryl]

2 hours ago, billd766 said:

I live in rural Khampaeng Phet and the little government surgery has 2 or 3 staff who speak English, the bigger cottage hospital about 15 km has most of the doctors and a few of the nurses and staff who speak English. Even at the small government 1st line surgery, the doctor speaks some English as do a couple of the staff speak some English too. However they don't get to practise it much.

Quite common upcountry to find doctors who cannot communicate effectively in English.

 

In the large regional hospital whete I live, almost no English spoken.

 

They can almost always read, at least a little, but soeaking/listening skills are negligible.

[billd766]

3 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Quite common upcountry to find doctors who cannot communicate effectively in English.

 

In the large regional hospital where I live, almost no English spoken.

 

They can almost always read, at least a little, but speaking/listening skills are negligible.

I would have thought that speaking English would be a requirement to become a doctor.

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

I would have thought that speaking English would be a requirement to become a doctor.

 

it is not (why would it be? their textbooks are in Thai.).

 

It is required that they study English but then so do all Thai students. Not at all the same thing as being able to speak it.

[offset]

I would like to add that you can always use a military hospital if that is the nearest hospital near you I found these to be very good and cheap

[DaRoadrunner]

12 hours ago, DavisH said:

That's interesting as I've never met a Thai doctor that doesn't speak English - and most of them competently. 

Most medical books are in English, they have to be able to read English to study to become a doctor.

 

God help you if you get one who can't read.

Edited December 23, 2019 by DaRoadrunner

[DaRoadrunner]

Having read some of the posts I get the impression it is possible to save a fortune by using an up country hospital. Problem being finding a good and well equipped one with competent doctors in Nakhon Nowhere!

 

[billd766]

39 minutes ago, offset said:

I would like to add that you can always use a military hospital if that is the nearest hospital near you I found these to be very good and cheap

My son (now 15) was born in the Army hospital at Nakhon Sawan. The problem is that it is 125 km away from us in a different province.

[billd766]

30 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Having read some of the posts I get the impression it is possible to save a fortune by using an up country hospital. Problem being finding a good and well equipped one with competent doctors in Nakhon Nowhere!

 

There is a great one called the Naresuan University Hospital in Phitsanulok but it is 180 km away and nearly 3 hours travel each way from where I live. To get there at 7 am I would have to leave home not much later than 4 am.

 

http://old.nu.ac.th/en/f1_medical_hospital.php

[DaRoadrunner]

1 minute ago, billd766 said:

There is a great one called the Naresuan University Hospital in Phitsanulok but it is 180 km away and nearly 3 hours travel each way from where I live. To get there at 7 am I would have to leave home not much later than 4 am.

 

http://old.nu.ac.th/en/f1_medical_hospital.php

3 hours travel; small problem, we might be dead before we get there.

 

I had hoped for responses from posters just outside of Bkk or just north of Phuket. Two areas frequented by Da Roadrunner.

[billd766]

52 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

3 hours travel; small problem, we might be dead before we get there.

 

I had hoped for responses from posters just outside of Bkk or just north of Phuket. Two areas frequented by Da Roadrunner.

But you didn't say where you were. It may have helped narrow it down.

[Sheryl]

11 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Most medical books are in English, they have to be able to read English to study to become a doctor.

 

God help you if you get one who can't read.

There are Thai medical texts.

 

Lectures and presentations also ate given in Thai the medical words only ate in English.

[Sheryl]

10 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

3 hours travel; small problem, we might be dead before we get there.

 

I had hoped for responses from posters just outside of Bkk or just north of Phuket. Two areas frequented by Da Roadrunner.

Hardly any reason to go just outside Bangkok when there are great Govt University Hospitals in Bangkok itself.

Chulalongkorn and Siriraj among many others.

 

Nothing worth recommending north of Phuket. Pickings are slim in Phuket irself for anything very complex/specialized but for routine things Mission Hospital is good and reasonably priced.

[DaRoadrunner]

17 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Hardly any reason to go just outside Bangkok when there are great Govt University Hospitals in Bangkok itself.

Chulalongkorn and Siriraj among many others.

Chula? Six hours wait to be seen by a student who did not know what he was doing. Eventually got to see a doctor the following visit, who did not know a whole lot either

[lopburi3]

6 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Chula? Six hours wait to be seen by a student who did not know what he was doing. Eventually got to see a doctor the following visit, who did not know a whole lot either

If using Chula the best idea is to get a recommended doctors name and use the pay for service option that most foreigners use to schedule appointment with him.  That way you will have access to known doctor at a reasonable price.  Believe such system is used at several government hospitals - you pay a bit more but get more private hospital service (although it can still vary as to how good).

[Sheryl]

As above. Directly consult a senior doctor via the after hours clinic.