Getting medical records in thailand

[jnj]

Hi,

 

Anyone know how to obtain your medical records in Thailand? My Thai wife living abroad needs her OPD card from the general health care system from when she lived in Thailand recently. How do we do to obtain the full records? Any suggestions about who to contact, if it is possible and i guess there must be a fee?

 

Best regards

Edited November 21, 2021 by jnj

[Sheryl]

It is easy enough when the patient can go in person. It will be quite difficult otherwise especially from a government facility.

 

What do you mean by "OPD card"? There is no such thing here.  

 

If you mean her full medical records -- at how many different health facilities would that be? The systems are not linked so each place she has ever be treated  will have records just for that place. In some government hospitals the records are not even computerized, it is all paper based.

 

Someone will have to go in person to get these records for her and then send it to her, the hospital(s) will not send it. Assuming there is someone who can do this, I suggest that whoever it is go to the hospital(s) with a picture of her hospital card with hospital number and find out what sort of documentation the hospital(s) would require to release her records to them.

 

Much of the records will being Thai or a jumble of Thai and English so the doctors abroad may not be able to glean much from them

 

 

 

 

[Kwasaki]

Unless your wife was registered at a Thai hospital you wouldn't get anything.

If your wife attended a clinic only the doctor your wife saw would have a record.

The only way I see as having your own record is to have kept your prescription receipts.

 

 

[JimHuaHin]

4 hours ago, Sheryl said:

It is easy enough when the patient can go in person. It will be quite difficult otherwise especially from a government facility.

 

What do you mean by "OPD card"? There is no such thing here.  

 

If you mean her full medical records -- at how many different health facilities would that be? The systems are not linked so each place she has ever be treated  will have records just for that place. In some government hospitals the records are not even computerized, it is all paper based.

 

Someone will have to go in person to get these records for her and then send it to her, the hospital(s) will not send it. Assuming there is someone who can do this, I suggest that whoever it is go to the hospital(s) with a picture of her hospital card with hospital number and find out what sort of documentation the hospital(s) would require to release her records to them.

 

Much of the records will being Thai or a jumble of Thai and English so the doctors abroad may not be able to glean much from them

 

 

 

 

Agreed.

 

The recording systems vary so much from place to place in the public health care system, and actually seeing records can be almost impossible in some places, unless you know someone in."authority" at the health institution concerned.

 

I always insist on getting a copy of any test results which are done, which is generally done free of charge, but getting copies of X-rays and scans, let alone the originals, is difficult, as is getting a copy of doctors' notes.

 

Good luck.

[lopburi3]

5 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Unless your wife was registered at a Thai hospital you wouldn't get anything.

If your wife attended a clinic only the doctor your wife saw would have a record.

The only way I see as having your own record is to have kept your prescription receipts.

 

 

If you use a hospital you are registered and records are kept and available but as said a power of attorney type statement would likely be required and a 3rd party to send them.  And if a government facility what you get may not be what you need.

 

At private hospitals you can indeed obtain full records/medical reports and such either free or at small copy charge.  

[Kwasaki]

8 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

If you use a hospital you are registered and records are kept and available but as said a power of attorney type statement would likely be required and a 3rd party to send them.  And if a government facility what you get may not be what you need.

 

At private hospitals you can indeed obtain full records/medical reports and such either free or at small copy charge.  

I wouldn't rely on what you reckon would happen in Thailand when it comes to falangies. ????

[lopburi3]

1 minute ago, Kwasaki said:

I wouldn't rely on what you reckon would happen in Thailand when it comes to falangies. ????

I know what happens because I have done the process at about 5 hospitals in Bangkok, including two government facilities.  Been here awhile.  ????

[jnj]

Well, she has only attended one branch of a Mithmitree clinic and it is the records of this facility only we need. We have been in contact to get the full records, but for some reason they will only give her the past 2 years. What are patients rights in Thailand considering getting your own medical details? Is the i formation stored electronically? In that case i guess it's just extracting a file from the computer system, i guess?

Edited November 22, 2021 by jnj

[Kwasaki]

6 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

I know what happens because I have done the process at about 5 hospitals in Bangkok, including two government facilities.  Been here awhile.  ????

Maybe in Bkk not a private hospital in Sukhothai and 3 private hospitals that I've used. 

That's the point I am trying to make many people think things are done the same as Bkk all over Thailand that is not the case. 

[Kwasaki]

12 minutes ago, jnj said:

Well, she has only attended one branch of a Mithmitree clinic and it is the records of this facility only we need. We have been in contact to get the full records, but for some reason they will only give her the past 2 years. What are patients rights in Thailand considering getting your own medical details? Is the i formation stored electronically? In that case i guess it's just extracting a file from the computer system, i guess?

Maybe they only have 2 years of computer records and the others are in a filling cabinet maybe. 

So get whatever they are prepared to send you. 

[lopburi3]

24 minutes ago, jnj said:

Well, she has only attended one branch of a Mithmitree clinic and it is the records of this facility only we need. We have been in contact to get the full records, but for some reason they will only give her the past 2 years. What are patients rights in Thailand considering getting your own medical details? Is the i formation stored electronically? In that case i guess it's just extracting a file from the computer system, i guess?

Expect that is all they have available - clinics are rare in Thailand for anything but beauty work.  Even if computer records they have to print out on A4 so can be a lot of paperwork in my experience.  But many places still have paper files.

[Sheryl]

2 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

I wouldn't rely on what you reckon would happen in Thailand when it comes to falangies. ????

I have many times gotten my medical records here, in fact just a week back got from 2 different hospitals including CDs with scans and Xrays, lab reports, etc etc. No charge, nto even for burning the CD, and readily obtained.

 

Done it many, many times over the years.

 

It is not at all hard from private hospitals provided  patient is able to come in person to do it. Getting records given to a 3rd party is much more complicated. And dealing with govt hospital is much harder. Combine this 2 things: govt hospital and 3rd party - and it is going to need a very determined person willing to make multiple visits and spend a  lot of time on her behalf to pull this off.

 

Frankly unless there are really important things in those records, may not be worth doing. Or if there is a specific issue that she needs the records for, might be easier to ask the relevant doctor to write a short summary rather than try to get copies of exisiting notes that are going to be sketchy, illegible and, probably, in Thai.

[lopburi3]

59 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Or if there is a specific issue that she needs the records for, might be easier to ask the relevant doctor to write a short summary rather than try to get copies of exisiting notes that are going to be sketchy, illegible and, probably, in Thai.

Very good point - I had this done at a government hospital by doctor (staff - not chief) and often have hospital provide what they call a Medical Report for operations and such (this is a multi page report of issues/treatment and such with timeline - not the Medical Certificate that is routinely issues for a visit which provides diagnosis type information).  Normally medical report will take a day or two to compose but no issues getting.  

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

I have many times gotten my medical records here, in fact just a week back got from 2 different hospitals including CDs with scans and Xrays, lab reports, etc etc. No charge, nto even for burning the CD, and readily obtained.

 

Done it many, many times over the years.

 

It is not at all hard from private hospitals provided  patient is able to come in person to do it. Getting records given to a 3rd party is much more complicated. And dealing with govt hospital is much harder. Combine this 2 things: govt hospital and 3rd party - and it is going to need a very determined person willing to make multiple visits and spend a  lot of time on her behalf to pull this off.

 

Frankly unless there are really important things in those records, may not be worth doing. Or if there is a specific issue that she needs the records for, might be easier to ask the relevant doctor to write a short summary rather than try to get copies of exisiting notes that are going to be sketchy, illegible and, probably, in Thai.

With respect of your knowledge of health care I guess Ok horses for courses in provinces.

Was in a private Hospital in New Sukhothai dying of Dengue fever then taken to Govt hospital the private hospital has no record of me being there go figure.

[jcmj]

If you go to a private hospital it is very easy to obtain all of your medical records. I just sent an email and had to send back a signed release form and ID and they sent them right over to my personal email. Just depends on the facility I suppose. 

[lopburi3]

19 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

a private Hospital in New Sukhothai

Suspect that is a key factor - outside of major cities many private hospitals do not deserve the name hospital from my understanding - and even in cities some are not much better.  

[Sheryl]

41 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

With respect of your knowledge of health care I guess Ok horses for courses in provinces.

Was in a private Hospital in New Sukhothai dying of Dengue fever then taken to Govt hospital the private hospital has no record of me being there go figure.

Did you go there in person with your hospital number? (Which would show on receipts).

 

Without hospital number, and especially with a foteign name, not unusual for a Thai hospital to be able to find your records.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Did you go there in person with your hospital number? (Which would show on receipts).

 

Without hospital number, and especially with a foteign name, not unusual for a Thai hospital to be able to find your records.

As far as I recall it was emergency and I was taken to the private hospital and accessed as what was wrong with me.

We ended up going govt hospital .

After trying to get a report from the private hospital there was no record.

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

As far as I recall it was emergency and I was taken to the private hospital and accessed as what was wrong with me.

We ended up going govt hospital .

After trying to get a report from the private hospital there was no record.

Perhaps because you had not been admitted.