Thailand's healthcare system ranked among best in the world

[Mausgras]

Come on guys! We are talking CEO World magazine here, not ordinary Thai person world.
If you have ever been into one of the private hospitals then they are pretty spivvy. I had to go to the one in Phuket. I was treated like a King for a possible hernia procedure. An attractive personal assistant guided me through the all the tests and multiple scans. Half a day and fifteen hundred dollars later I was ushered into an office where a young smart doctor explained the optional procedures and the different costs, Advising me to take the week in hospital twenty five thousand dollar option. The brochure he handed me looked like a resort.

Thanking them all nicely I quietly dressed and left. A couple of days later I was back in Australia. Went into a Private hospital one day and out the next. Total cost some $5000 dollars which my insurance paid.
PS I once visited a friend in a Thai Public Hospital. Eight beds crammed into a room meant for four. Patients being fed and washed by family members. 

[Doctor Tom]

1 hour ago, bbko said:

My wife and luk khrueng son are registered under the 30 baht scheme and get excellent care at the local clinic for minor illnesses and other than a longer wait at the government hospital for non-emergency care they get proper treatment.

 

No way in the world would big companies and bought politicians allow something like the 30 baht scheme in my country/USA.

You may wish to ponder if your wife and son get antibiotics at almost every visit to the clinic and for colds and flu like symptoms, all unnecessary of course,  and how often the does a high dose get  injected. This is endemic in LOS. Rural medicine in LOS is historically bad and more akin to witchcraft than health care. 

[maddox41]

Bangkoks BNH   hostipal i consider excellent or any 5 star private hospitals you get what you pay for. 

Step outside that realm like Krabi public hospital is like going back to a  WW2 field hostipal as for dentistry id say they are the best in the world  way better then Australian 

[Xonax]

I do my best to avoid doctors in Thailand. My personal experience is, that if they are unable to properly diagnose a disease, they will come up with a fantasy-diagnose, which requires at least 4 different medications of which one will be antibiotics, suggest you to do expensive blood tests, suggest you to do expensive scannings, prescribe you useless physical therapy or even advise you to get surgery for am imaginary disease as soon as possible. All this just to take as much of your money as possible.  On top of all this, Thailands hospitals have a multi-level price list, in which poor foreign retirees will have to pay the highest price.

[PEE TEE]

I thought they were clamping down on fake news !  if you have loads of money or a good insurance company it is very good. or I may be misunderstood that this only relates to Thai nationals.

[VintageTQ]

1 hour ago, Pravda said:

 

I admit I know nothing about UK healthcare, but I know plenty about Canadian healthcare. The doctors and hospitals will do everything in their power to save a life regardless of cost. In Thailand, they won't even give you painkillers if you're dying of cancer unless you pay. 

 

I have a good insurance here, but there is no way in hell I will fight with them here when I'm old if something serious comes up. They will always refuse to pay and make excuses. 

 

My ex-wife's friend died of cancer in her early 30's here. She had insurance because she worked in the same company as my wife. A very big German international company connected to BTS project. The company is great, but Thai insurance apparently isn't as they didn't pay for treatment. What to say? 

You obviously don't have very good insurance if they always find a way not to pay.

 

I actually DO have very good insurance here (approx 8k baht a month for me, wife, child) and in almost 10 years and many many claims the insurance company have never refused to pay.

 

You need to look at different insurers, seems like you are getting ripped off.

[jwbrit]

Since we need insurance to cover Covid hospital treatment expenses, estimated as high as $100k, it also makes Thailand healthcare one of the most expensive in the world.

[Eric Loh]

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

I only have experience with 2 countries.  Both excellent, 1 affordable, 1 unaffordable (actually cost more if you have health insurance).

 

One reason I chose Thailand to retire, and not the USA.  

Couldn’t even find USA in the rankings. Sad. 

[HAPPYNUFF]

Obviously, staff from the Tourist Authority of Thailand  assisted in  compiling this  little fairy tale.

 

While Im on my high horse, I get a bit weary  at the "insurance experts" on this forum who keep spouting   about ''If you cant afford insurance you shouldnt be here"..  Have they  ever stopped to think,,,  a difficult concept for most of them , I reallize, in that  its not a matter of affording, but  the fact that every insurance company I know of, here in the land of smiles, simply refuses to insure a person once they reach 70, and in some cases 75 years of age, unlike my own country, where age is of no concern, and in fact the government gives a generous subsidy  to  aged persons  to assist  paying their premiums.

[Xonax]

24 minutes ago, VintageTQ said:

You obviously don't have very good insurance if they always find a way not to pay.

 

I actually DO have very good insurance here (approx 8k baht a month for me, wife, child) and in almost 10 years and many many claims the insurance company have never refused to pay.

 

You need to look at different insurers, seems like you are getting ripped off.

A few years ago I had a quite expensive back surgery in a top hospital in Bangkok. After being released by the doctor, I had to wait 7 hours before I was allowed to leave the hospital, as the hospital had to negotiate the payment with my insurance company, before I could be allowed to leave. Since this single incident made me a burdon to my insurance company (international), they decided to load an additional 25% on my already expensive premium for the following two years.

[khunPer]

Thailand's healthcare system is actually quite good, and I compares with number three on the list, I prefers the Thai system...????

[Joules]

2 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

I think the magazine title in which this article appeared, CEO World, should give a hint. There is no denying that patients with the financial means and first-class health insurance can receive excellent medical treatment here and are courted like kings. But.... what about the vast majority of citizens, the so-called unwashed masses? I very much doubt they'd blow into the same horn as CEO World.

 

Receiving a few paracetamols or dispensed-like-candies antibiotics in a village medical center, or cueing up for countless hours in overcrowded public hospitals just to get a simple x-ray or change of wound dressing is perhaps not exactly what these people would laud as "among the best in the world." Not that CEO World editors bothered to do any research into that, did they?

I could not have said it better.  Our local hospital would not even measure up to the average veterinarian office in the US.   Cattle get much better treatment than Thai villagers could ever hope for.  Cancer treatment were I live is paracetamol.  And mammograms or colonoscopies?  Are you kidding?  

 

Hey, it is certainly better than nothing and nobody has to worry about bankruptcy if they need healthcare as they would in the US.  The Thais have Thaksin Shinawatra to thank for that.   But to say it is better than Norway and New Zealand?  Come on, man!  The Earth ain't flat.

[PEE TEE]

Few years ago i had bad fall from motorbike . (Dog run out into front wheel) in for ten days. 4 hr. op. plastic surgeon Inc. metal plates in arm and face. had insurance private hospital. Excellent service treated like a king . insurance had to pay out 750.000 thb .If you have the money for insurance or big money in the bank is great . wonder how it would compare to the UK NHS system ? much the same or not ? The surgeon said he saved my arm he thought i would lose it as was broken in 3 places and a splintered elbow How luck a can use it almost normal  

[WEBBYB808]

Impossible when Thailand is dependent upon other countries donations of vaccines and equipment,  not to mention the standard of training  and the requirements of a medical  license  being low, once again, impossible. Who was it tgat said, if you tell a big enough lie abd teoeat the lie, people  will believe  it?

[Purdey]

This should help with medical tourism no doubt.

But for the farmers daughter with cancer I once met, given paracetamol and told to go home to die, I am a little surprised. 

I would hazard a guess this recognition is mainly for private Bangkok hospitals, not government-owned facilities. 

[SpaceKadet]

I am surprised that South Korea was number one. Always thought is was Cuba.

 

Anyways, I would rather go to Norway for healthcare than here....

[SpaceKadet]

I am surprised that South Korea was number one. Always thought is was Cuba.

 

Anyways, I would rather go to Norway for healthcare than here....

[Pravda]

38 minutes ago, VintageTQ said:

You obviously don't have very good insurance if they always find a way not to pay.

 

I actually DO have very good insurance here (approx 8k baht a month for me, wife, child) and in almost 10 years and many many claims the insurance company have never refused to pay.

 

You need to look at different insurers, seems like you are getting ripped off.

 

Where in my post did I say I ever made insurance claim? I was talking about my wife's friend who died of cancer while insurance played stupid.

 

 

[Andycoops]

Except when you arrive at the hospital for your 2nd covid Pfizer jab and are told, no vaccine available today,

no apology, no we'll contact you soon to rearrange,

just a total farce.

 

[Caldera]

I can only assume that's a sick joke.

 

Most Thais don't have access to decent healthcare. What's available at the top isn't really a good indicator for the quality of a health care system as a whole.

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

The Health Care Index, which ranks 89 countries according to factors that contribute to overall health, ranked Thailand's health care system in 13th place with an overall score of 59.52.

13th out 89... how many countries in the world?

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Thailand's health care system has been ranked among the best in the world, according to CEO WORLD magazine's Health Care Index.

That depends on whether you can afford to be treated at Bumrungrad hospital in Bangkok or in a government hospital out in the boonies.

Thailand probably has some of the best and some of the worst.

It would be fairer to say it has some of the best hospitals... but to say it has the best health care system is debatable.

[worgeordie]

They must be the tops......at sowing willy's back on ........????

regards worgeordie

[antony77]

Thai bashers at it again. Thailand has an excellent public health  care system.. It has been let down by the government in every way . Insufficient vaccines,.underfunded and government interferance by incompetant politicians.

[bert bloggs]

3 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Quite some government hospitals I've been to (Chiang Rai for example) have a rather medieval feeling to them with stretchers with dying people in the hallways, and whole families camping in tents outside, waiting for the bad news moment. This is just my own observation, mind you. Healthcare is only topnotch here, if you can afford it. 

 

How about the Burmese labourers in Samut Sakon, who had Covid? Barbed wired factories. 

Well when i had my heart attack i went to Chanburi govt heart hospital ,i had great service ,all my tests etc at a reasonable price and all my meds very cheap ,compared to Samitavit Sri racha private hospital 1 baby asprin 27 baht,no wonder it cost 52k for one night.

Mind you Pattaya Banglamung govt hospital was not good.

[MrJ2U]

The Private hospitals are pretty good.

 

Definitely one of the more expensive countries to get hospitalized in.

 

Ever more so with Anutin endorsing dual pricing as  "fair".

[Chad3000]

Depends on how credible you think *CEO World* is I suppose.

 

At the top medical care is imo as good as the US. It's also just as expensive. Basically, medical and dental are about 30% less which is about the same as difference in overhead for medical practices + malpractice insurance in US.

 

You also get no malpractice insurance here and my understanding is lots of sketchy doctors especially in cosmetic surgery.

 

Need a dental cleaning? It's half the price. Need an honest dentist? Not English speaking in BKK.

[Chad3000]

24 minutes ago, Caldera said:

I can only assume that's a sick joke.

 

Most Thais don't have access to decent healthcare. What's available at the top isn't really a good indicator for the quality of a health care system as a whole.

This is so true. Moreover the difference between my wife's mediocre insurance and what her 75yo parents are stuck with is appalling.

[RichardColeman]

Have they got another chart for worst countries for being held to Hospital ransom ? 

[ThomasThBKK]

19 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

That depends on whether you can afford to be treated at Bumrungrad hospital in Bangkok or in a government hospital out in the boonies.

Thailand probably has some of the best and some of the worst.

It would be fairer to say it has some of the best hospitals... but to say it has the best health care system is debatable.

 

Even those fancy ones... 

 

 

All I ever got was the same goddamn broadband antibiotic, no matter what I had.

Always the same one, the one no one uses in Germany except everything else got tried already and always mixed with other meds that should not be taken together with antibiotics.... 

Literally have to google each time I get meds here if they are safe for cross use... might be dead without google already...