Doctor tenders resignation after giving her sister extra jab - health official apologizes too

[webfact]

Picture: Thai Rath

 

It has emerged that news reports that a female doctor at a hospital in the southern Thai province of Nakhon Sri Thammarat vaccinated a relative who was not on the list are in fact true.

 

Yesterday evening Thai Rath reported that the chief medical officer of the province Dr Jaraspong Sukkree and the director of Noppitum Hospital Dr Krit Petchsamrual admitted the truth. 

 

They had met with the doctor concerned who expressed her regret for bringing the hospital into disrepute and tendered her resignation. 

 

She had given her sister a dose of Pfizer. It was the dregs of a bottle of six doses. Using something called a Low Dead Space Syringe she had extracted a seventh dose for her relative.

 

This came after relatives of frontline medical personnel were stopped from receiving the vaccine by health authorities meaning that the doctors mother and other relatives missed out. 

 

The resignation will be considered by the provincial governor.

 

Other disciplinary measures are also being considered against the woman. 

 

Dr Jaraspong apologized to the people of the province for what had happened. 

 

Discover Cigna’s range of health insurance solutions created for expats and local nationals living in Thailand - click to view

 

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2021-08-17

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[BritManToo]

Doesn't seem that big a deal to me.

When are they going to ask Anutin to resign for failing to procure vaccinations for all the population?

[Scrotobike]

The blood sacrifice to quell the masses

Lets see how many of the true vaccine abusers follow this

[robblok]

9 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Doesn't seem that big a deal to me.

When are they going to ask Anutin to resign for failing to procure vaccinations for all the population?

Your right they go after something small like this. But not after far largers problems like the testing kits and slow vaccine buying. She did not make a profit on this and did not use someone else his or her vaccine so its not that big of a deal IMHO. 

[Rookiescot]

So in reality we can get 7 dosses out of a bottle?

Why are we not already doing that?

[RJRS1301]

Wonder who reported the incident ? 

Some one who knew the sister and missed out on a dose?

 

[ezzra]

Nepotism is a problem everywhere around the world and on a much much greater scale than giving a relative the coveted shot, is just that this guy got caught while many others continue with flaunting the laws and common decency everyday....

[tomazbodner]

48 minutes ago, webfact said:

Using something called a Low Dead Space Syringe she had extracted a seventh dose for her relative.

So basically she used what would have otherwise been thrown away. Why not reward her for coming up with a way to provide 20% more vaccines from same amount of imports?

[mahtin]

I doubt that she is the first.

[Tropicalevo]

28 minutes ago, mahtin said:

I doubt that she is the first.

and won't be the last. Very sad state of affairs.

[Doctor Tom]

A farang acquaintance of mine has a doctor as a wife and both of them obtained, by whatever means, the AZ vaccine many months ago. He was quite proud of having been able to jump all the queues.  I though that the guy was a dick.  

[Almer]

So the 6 previous shots were short to allow for 1 extra, fire her now.

[Almer]

42 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

So basically she used what would have otherwise been thrown away. Why not reward her for coming up with a way to provide 20% more vaccines from same amount of imports?

No, the previous 6 were short.

[Almer]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Doesn't seem that big a deal to me.

When are they going to ask Anutin to resign for failing to procure vaccinations for all the population?

Its a big  deal if she gave a short dose to the previous 6.

[RJRS1301]

24 minutes ago, Almer said:

So the 6 previous shots were short to allow for 1 extra, fire her now.

The other shots may not have used Low Dead Space Syringe, which may account for the extra. 

Low Dead Space Syringes are more efficient. 

[robblok]

54 minutes ago, Doctor Tom said:

A farang acquaintance of mine has a doctor as a wife and both of them obtained, by whatever means, the AZ vaccine many months ago. He was quite proud of having been able to jump all the queues.  I though that the guy was a dick.  

He just used his connections, its normal in Thailand. I would use my connections too if i had any. Its quite hard for a foreigner to get vaccinated otherwise especially if your under 60.

 

Not saying its good but its a common thing here if he had refused it someone else would have taken it. Did not mean it would come to the right person. If that was a guarantee then sure. Ok there is a moral question too but the whole vaccine rollout is a drama with randomly giving people preference. If you don't take action yourself you might never get vaccinated. So if someone has pull i can understand that they use it. 

[nausea]

29 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

Low Dead Space Syringes are more efficient. 

Yeah, thanks for that, googled it, the article kinda makes sense now. There seem to be some potential disadvantages, so probably OK for a highly skilled doctor to use on one occasion, but maybe not for mass vaccination where less skilled health workers are are running a vaccination assembly line.

[RJRS1301]

18 minutes ago, nausea said:

Yeah, thanks for that, googled it, the article kinda makes sense now. There seem to be some potential disadvantages, so probably OK for a highly skilled doctor to use on one occasion, but maybe not for mass vaccination where less skilled health workers are are running a vaccination assembly line.

Medical and nursing staff have been trained in many countries on these and using multidose vials.

It is a skill, use them and multidose vials while retaining absolute sterility , however many have that skill and is easily trained for, even with assembly line vaccinations

[andersonat]

 

In order to extract six doses from a single vial, low dead-volume syringes should be used for all six doses. If standard syringes are used, there may not be enough of the vaccine to extract a sixth dose from a vial.

  -  And Health-Authorities advise that there should be no pooling from multiple vials to make up a full dose.

 

  --  What's odd here is that the News-Report above talks about a 7th dose being taken from a [single ?] vial.

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by andersonat

[richard_smith237]

A load of my Wife’s friends received vaccines quite early on (April / May) because they were friends with someone in the medial profession.

 

The fact that a lot of hi-so’s and those with connections to friends and family in the medical profession have ‘jumped the queue’ and received vaccines ahead of others is widely known.

 

It certainly is very strange that an example is being made here - Its akin to showing faux-outrage when a policeman takes 200 baht by someone not wearing a helmet and the media is upset and shocked that such a thing happens... 

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by richard_smith237

[richard_smith237]

4 minutes ago, andersonat said:

In order to extract six doses from a single vial, low dead-volume syringes should be used for all six doses. If standard syringes are used, there may not be enough of the vaccine to extract a sixth dose from a vial.

  -  And Health-Authorities advise that there should be no pooling from multiple vials to make up a full dose.

 

  --  What's odd here is that the News-Report above talks about a 7th dose being taken from a [single ?] vial.

 

When I received my 3.0ml Pfizer dose I asked the nurse if there was any difference in dose depending on body weight...  

I am twice the size of my Wife - I get 3.0 ml my Wife gets 3.0 ml...  surely she needs less or I need more !

 

The dose is of course ‘standard’ for all. 

 

But, the discussion on ‘volume’ does perhaps present an interesting conundrum. 

[BusyB]

3 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

So basically she used what would have otherwise been thrown away. Why not reward her for coming up with a way to provide 20% more vaccines from same amount of imports?

I think the thing is she should perhaps have used that for another front line worker but family ties got the better of her.

But in this case I don't think she should be sacked ... the vaccine would otherwise have landed in the bin anyway.

Edited August 17, 2021 by BusyB

[Cake Monster]

3 hours ago, robblok said:

Your right they go after something small like this. But not after far largers problems like the testing kits and slow vaccine buying. She did not make a profit on this and did not use someone else his or her vaccine so its not that big of a deal IMHO. 

So you are saying that it absolutely fine for any Doctor to give Vaccine shots to whoever they please.

This Incident is Ethically wrong, and Morally repugnant.

She should be struck off ( if that exists in Thailand )

 

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

So in reality we can get 7 dosses out of a bottle?

Why are we not already doing that?

The article said that she used the dregs in the bottle after 6 doses, it didn't say that it was a full dose. It's unlikely that a six-dose bottle will hold exactly six doses, there's bound to be some extra to allow for evaporation, waste etc.   If there wasn't that extra there wouldn't necessarily be six complete doses in the bottle.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, Almer said:

So the 6 previous shots were short to allow for 1 extra

Where did it say that?

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Doesn't seem that big a deal to me.

When are they going to ask Anutin to resign for failing to procure vaccinations for all the population?

The Pfizer vaccine was for frontilne personnel who on a daily basis come into contact with infected 

people.

It was not meant for mothers/sisters or other family members.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, Almer said:

No, the previous 6 were short.

No, they weren't.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, Almer said:

Its a big  deal if she gave a short dose to the previous 6.

Where did it say that was the case?

[herfiehandbag]

We are in the middle of a pandemic.

 

The health service is under acute pressure.

 

What she did was wrong and unethical. She should be punished by the appropriate professional standards body.

 

It is not a resignation matter. She is needed as a doctor.

[Liverpool Lou]

1 hour ago, andersonat said:

  --  What's odd here is that the News-Report above talks about a 7th dose being taken from a [single ?] vial.

I doesn't say that it was a full dose.