My experience at Chiang Rai Government Hospital

[SiSePuede419]

Spent a few days at CR Government hospital (Chiang Rai Prachanukroh), aka "Hong ya Thai". 

 

Fun.

 

Because I wasn't the patient. ????

 

My wife was in there for surgery (C-section).

 

She knew a doctor who was highly recommended and has performed hundreds of similar surgeries.

 

The doctor's fee?  2000B paid in advance.  The doctor stopped by and checked on my wife 3 times after the surgery.

 

We got a private room @ 2000B/night. Highly recommended.  It's a bit bare bones, but OK.

 

PROTIP: Bring your own towels, hand soap, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, dishwashing soap, scrubbie, forks & spoons, blankets and pillows from home.  It ain't the Hilton.

 

Also, make sure you have cash for things like pain medication (if needed) and other stuff the government considers "non-essential".  They will collect the money as you go along.  It's not much, 200B here and 400B there.

 

I was the "errand boy" taking documents around to one department to another.

 

Great way to practice your Thai language skills.  First they will ask you if you speak Thai.  You will tell them you only speak a little.  Then they will speak to you in Thai.  Usually it's incomprehensible, but I listen and then ask basic questions, like "yuu tee nigh Hong 1-1-1".

 

For example, the first day I had to take one document to room 999 and return with another.

 

It was actually supposed to be room 119.  Sometimes the information you get is wrong.  Roll with it, don't get upset.

 

And they told me "chan kok  go there".

 

I kept asking for "chan kok" until I found room 119 on the 6th floor, near the new emergency entrance.

 

Turns out they were saying "Chan hok" (6th floor).  Doh.

 

So, the bill was around 16,000B + 6000B for 3 days, private room, plus 2000B for the doctor.

 

My wife will get most of this money back from the Social Security office after submitting the bill.

 

Which she plans to use to buy private insurance, LOL.

 

Private hospitals aren't necessarily better than the government hospitals.  They have the same doctors.  What's different is less crowded and quicker and slightly less confusing, LOL.

 

What was great about the government hospitals is you will probably be the only foreigner in there.  Most people will nonchalantly ignore you.  Some will stare.  The really hot girls will act like you're invisible (hey, just like back in my home country).  You will also get a few smiles.

 

Overall, I recommend if you can speak a little Thai.

 

PROTIP: If you are a backpacker and want to save money you can always sleep at a government hospital for free, on the floor, just like the locals do, LOL.

 

 

 

 

[Assurancetourix]

2 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

We got a private room @ 2000B/night.

It seems excessively expensive to me;
Plus the backchich of 2,000 baht to the doctor, what a horror! if a doctor claims a bribe, change the doctor .
At the public hospital of Sawang Daen Din - ( Sakon Nakhon province) which is brand new, (next to the old one), the individual rooms which are really very good with large flat screen TV, private bathroom, airco, small kitchen and balcony and another bed for someone in the family is

700 baht if you are a farang and  half the price :350 baht if you are Thai;
as for sleeping on the floor in the hall, you can forget;
If you want to sleep for free, there are Wat for that with the added bonus of a shower with a bowl and cold water.

[Sheryl]

26 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

It seems excessively expensive to me;
Plus the backchich of 2,000 baht to the doctor, what a horror! if a doctor claims a bribe, change the doctor .
At the public hospital of Sawang Daen Din - ( Sakon Nakhon province) which is brand new, (next to the old one), the individual rooms which are really very good with large flat screen TV, private bathroom, airco, small kitchen and balcony and another bed for someone in the family is

700 baht if you are a farang and  half the price :350 baht if you are Thai;
as for sleeping on the floor in the hall, you can forget;
If you want to sleep for free, there are Wat for that with the added bonus of a shower with a bowl and cold water.

700 is unusually cheap.

 

Government hospitals in Prachinburi and Nakirn Nayok average around 1500 with some as high as 1800. And old, some no TV, others tiny old machine. Your province is unusual.

 

For people covered under 30 baht scheme cost of ward accomodation is subtracted from room rate i.e. they pay only the difference. Thats 400 baht deduction in the provinces I mentioned. 

[Assurancetourix]

So the users of Sawang Daen Din hospital are lucky; so much the better for them ..

I have lived here for 14 years, I have been hospitalized once (in 14 years), in a single room; and this for a trifle ..
I could very well have stayed 2 nights in a collective room but my wife .. could it be to show that she is rich? wanted to pay for a single room ..

 

While I'm there ..
One of my stepdaughters is a doctor and a public servant at That Phanom hospital in Nakon Phanom province;
is there a possibility for her to allow her step-dad to benefit from the advantages she has as a thai?
Or not ?

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, Assurancetourix said:

At the public hospital of Sawang Daen Din - ( Sakon Nakhon province) which is brand new, (next to the old one), the individual rooms which are really very good with large flat screen TV, private bathroom, airco, small kitchen and balcony and another bed for someone in the family is

700 baht if you are a farang and  half the price :350 baht if you are Thai;
as for sleeping on the floor in the hall, you can forget;
If you want to sleep for free, there are Wat for that with the added bonus of a shower with a bowl and cold water.

When and if you are wrongly diagnosed at that hospital as I was, I would strongly recommend AEK at Udon Thani.

 

Visited Sawang Daen Din hospital on a few occasions over the past decade in my opinion was good for putting you on a drip for food poisoning, an x-ray, and giving you some oxygen, but for actually diagnosing your symptoms accurately is like playing Russian Roulette, AEK straight up will always be my preferred from my latest experience and misdiagnoses at Sawang Daen Din public hospital.

 

The ques at the public hospital are also very long, even for a simple blood test, you cannot get one without seeing the doctor first which will take a minimum 3 hours if you get in early in the morning, and then to get the results you have to go through the same procedure again, a week later after paying 800 baht, whereas as I have found, that at a private lab/clinic at Udon Thani they will do the same for less and provide you the results in an hour, fair enough, they just see people for blood tests, therefore I now prefer to drive to Udon for an hour, do the blood test there and drive back, 3 hours out and about is more pleasant than waiting in a hospital for what seems to take forever and quite depressing to see everyone there in the same boat.

 

AEK has a less waiting time, and far more professional doctors who are actually listening to what the patient is saying, and diagnosed me correctly and had me on the mend within an hour, those lollies did the job, whereas the other lollies provided by the public hospital didn't do anything and prolonged my suffering for two weeks, but at the end of the day, it's the journey that leads us to the experience and you get what you pay for, and as life is priceless, I can't afford for some doctor who wishes to play on his mobile while chatting to me telling me my symptoms are normal and I am getting better when I am getting worse.

 

So from my experience at the public hospital in Sawang Daen Din, it's not for me, nor is it for my family for being diagnosed, but each to their own.

[BritManToo]

4 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

So, the bill was around 16,000B + 6000B for 3 days, private room, plus 2000B for the doctor.

Far too much IMHO.

Had a baby at NakornPing in Chiang Mai.

Private room for her 2 nights = 2,000bht. Disease tests for me 250bht.

That was it, didn't need to bring anything from home.

 

Too many Thai hospitals will do unnecessary C-sections to earn extra cash, no need at all, and recovery time for her is way longer.

[SiSePuede419]

8 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

whereas as I have found, that at a private lab/clinic at Udon Thani they will do the same for less and provide you the results in an hour, fair enough, they just see people for blood tests

 

Yup, we go to Mengrai Lab in Chiang Rai for simple blood tests.  No waiting and usually get the results by email within an hour.

 

In America, colonoscopy is "free" every 5 or 10 years if you are over 50--if you pay $6000/year in insurance premiums.  But it's dangerous as <deleted>, literally. ????

 

SINGLE PAYER OR MEDICARE FOR ALL.

 

An alternative is a FIT test every year.  Painless and only cost 100B at the lab. ✓

[SiSePuede419]

8 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

When and if you are wrongly diagnosed at that hospital as I was, I would strongly recommend AEK at Udon Thani

Impersonating my wife:

"Isaan different...Chiang Rai." ????

[Lacessit]

I am wondering if the OP would have the same experience if he was admitted at the same hospital unconscious as the result of a stroke or vehicle accident. Might be turnabout with his wife then. Not a criticism, just curious as to how it would unfold.

[SiSePuede419]

7 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I am wondering if the OP would have the same experience if he was admitted at the same hospital unconscious as the result of a stroke or vehicle accident. Might be turnabout with his wife then. Not a criticism, just curious as to how it would unfold.

The exact same doctors work in government hospitals and private hospitals.

 

You're free to believe that the very same doctors are going to give you better care in a private hospital, if that makes you feel better about spending more money there.

 

Of course my experience would be different as a patient than as a non-patient.  Duh.

 

  So what?  What's your point?

 

My post was more about a government hospital being a good place to practice your Thai language skills among people who aren't rice farmers. ????

[SiSePuede419]

16 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Too many Thai hospitals will do unnecessary C-sections to earn extra cash, no need at all, and recovery time for her is way longer.

Yeah, I read that on the internet, too. ????

 

Historically, before modern medicine, do you have any idea what % of women died during childbirth?

 

"Childbirth was so dangerous that a woman would make out her will as soon as she found out she was pregnant."

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/50513/historical-horror-childbirth

 

Some women's cervix only dilate 1cm. 

 

There's no way a baby gonna fit through that size opening, don't care how soft and flexible the baby's skull is.

 

Take a read about these "mums"

(I presume they're from the UK or Australia)...

 

Who with all the technology of a first rate healthcare system suffered in pain for hours before an emergency C-section had to be performed:

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childbirth/1394667-I-spent-hours-having-contractions-and-was-only-1cm-dilated-why

 

[4MyEgo]

3 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

You're free to believe that the very same doctors are going to give you better care in a private hospital, if that makes you feel better about spending more money there.

I suppose everyone's experience is different, I have been to Khon Kaen public hospital to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from the left side of my face, the hospital is so big as it's also a University training campus I suppose you can call it.

 

Waiting times are crazy, the place looks dirty and tired, not something I am used to seeing back in Sydney, although the guy who carried out the procedure was an associate professor with 4 of his students watching me as I went under the knife, at least he knew English and was pleasant. That was my 2nd public hospital I went to, Sawang Daen Din the other, I have always seen hospitals to be clean from growing up, although I know they are breeding grounds for bacteria, still I prefer to see a clean environment, no que's or minimal, e.g. 30 minute wait tops, and doctors who are not under the pump having to see 1,000 patients, I mean how many miss diagnosed patients would there be as these guys go home, Thai's don't complain, don't question, and most in Issan don't have the funds to go to a private hospital.

 

When I was back in Oz with my wife, she would tell me her niece kept fainting at school and they kept taking to her to hospital, 3 times in all, she was 14 at the time, now 22 and at uni, I asked her what the doctors at the hospital had found her to be suffering from, and she said they kept telling her not to stress over school work and to rest, in other words no diagnosis, so I said to her to get her sister to take her to a private hospital for a second opinion, I sent them 10,000 baht and said it's on me, because I know they dont have money, but the proviso was that she take a picture of the bill and send it to me over the phone.

 

They agreed and the doctor at the private hospital carried out tests and found that her heart was large for her age and that she had to take tablets for the rest of her life, not to exercise and cannot have children. He also sent her to a public hospital in another province to get checked every 6 months and get her meds for free. She has never had a repeat of fainting spells since.

 

3 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

So what?  What's your point?

 

My post was more about a government hospital being a good place to practice your Thai language skills among people who aren't rice farmers. ????

@Lacessit

 

Perhaps you should have put that part in another section of TVF as I thought it was mainly about the C-section, the language part a little confusing, I mean who runs around a hospital to practice language skills, no thanks, no interested in learning Thai at all as I don't want to hear them mocking or putting us farangs down for whatever their reason, my wife translates to me when required to let me know what's going on, or serves it to them if they dare say something detrimental, no she doesn't have her nose in the air, she still has her village talents and will size anyone up if they have a dog mouth.

 

4 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

There's no way a baby gonna fit through that size opening, don't care how soft and flexible the baby's skull is.

My wife has delivered 4 healthy babies under natural birth, C-section should only be done when there is a complication before or during the birth i.e. if the baby isn't happening or the cord is tangled, although the last child we had wasn't a problem, was wife bled heavily after the placenta was removed, fortunately for us it was in a (public) hospital in Sydney and the midwives hit the button right on the change over shift and there was a team of about 20 people who knew exactly what to do and stopped the bleeding, I almost past out with ne bub in hand, but one of the nurses saw me and sat me down saying all would be fine, and it was, thank God.

 

C-sections back in Oz are a trend for the yuppy mums who don't want to go through the push scenario, my mate had his Thai wife go that way for their 2 kids, and he deserves everything he gets for treating her like a princes, whereas my wife wanted to check out about 4 hours after giving birth, they said no sweetie, 24 hours is the rule, but who going to look after my husband she said, yes you can just see the look on the nurses face, with her saying to me, you caught a live one here, oh yeh I said ????

 

[JAG]

My daughter ,(14), is treated for a long term condition at Chiang Rai Government Hospital. It is fine. The treatment (certainly for her condition) is good. Yes you wait around a lot, but at least you get treated. A lot of building and alterations going on but it is clean. Between my idiosyncratic Thai and their basic English we manage to communicate.

 

No flat screen TV in the waiting rooms though...

[sceadugenga]

I've done a bit of waiting at the Overbrook, there are flatscreen TVs but I rarely see anyone watching them, most look at their phones, I read on my tablet.

Blood tests take about an hour for results but the waiting time was the same at Suandok Government hospital in Chiang Mai when I was there for 6 weeks outpatient treatment last year.

Never waited more than a few minutes for the actual test at either location.

Suandok did mix up my results once though, there were students taking the blood that day.

I'll just say that when the Doc told me the "bad news" I could hear the champagne corks popping in Chang Rai. ????

[bobbybo]

My wife will do a c section in March here as well. How long did it take to get the funds back from social security after you reported the bill?

 

we have delivered at govt hospital before but this is first time with her having the social security. Just curious.