Hospitals Hit By Downturn

[george]

Hospitals hit by downturn

Luxury facilities close units as patients desert

BANGKOK: -- The global recession has driven more than half of wealthy foreign patients seeking medical care in upscale hospitals out of Thailand, a Bangkok seminar was told yesterday.

The crisis has also prompted those hospitals to lay off nurses and medical personnel, said Assoc Prof Piya Natewichien, who represented highend hospitals at the seminar.

Many luxury hospitals have closed down emergency units to save costs, he said. However, good management and effective adjustments would make these hospitals still capable of running their business with minimum risk of shutting down their operations.

Luxury hospitals at all levels had generated about Bt400 billion each year through their services for rich foreign patients especially those from the Middle East, he said.

These patients have sought medical treatment in other counties where the costs were lower, including India.

The luxury hospitals in Thailand affected most are those designated as Grade A, because their main source of revenue comes from Arabian patients, while those designated as Grades B and C have been less affected, because most of their patients are rich Thais.

Many welloff local patients have also turned to using the services of Grade B and C hospitals in light of their lower costs.

Wiroj na Ranong, a researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute, said local upmarket hospitals would face such a crisis for at least six more months. And by then, more rich patients will still be seeking fivestar treatment but not automatically in Thailand, but elsewhere, because they also feel the pinch of the economic downturn in their countries.

He said the crisis would further prompt middleclass or rich people to seek treatment in state hospitals - a practice he urged the government to pay special attention to.

He suggested government hospitals halt their future costly projects and seek perhead subsidies to treat more patients while the economic situation had not improved.

Dr Uachart Kanjanaphithak said reductions of medical staff were needed but would not be practised automatically in the first place. He said other options like cutting their work hours or duties would be better than making them redundant.

Dr Winai Sawasdiworn, secretarygeneral of the National Health Security Office, said the gloomy economy had prompted people to save their money for medical care instead of spending it on everyday life.

He called for a better public health system and welfare benefits, which would encourage people to spend regularly after they became confident that saving up for emergency treatment was not needed as much when good stateprovided medical services were available.

-- The Nation 2009-02-02

[Ricardo]

I would suspect that the continuing strength of the Baht is also helping price these medical-tourists out of Thailand ?

This is bad news for anyone who invested heavily, in private-hospitals in Thailand, after having introduced the under-funded 30-Baht medical scheme for the public hospitals. It never rains but it pours, for a certain ex-PM, wherever he now is.

[misterman21]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

Edited February 2, 2009 by misterman21

[MyphuketLife]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

Carefull having a penis reduction the doctors here are used to removing it completly... you might wake up with a whole rather than a smaller penis....

anyway all jokes aside, i think that the strong baht plays a big role in the drastic downturn...

[dinthailand]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

Carefull having a penis reduction the doctors here are used to removing it completly... you might wake up with a whole rather than a smaller penis....

anyway all jokes aside, i think that the strong baht plays a big role in the drastic downturn...

good joke. keep them coming. poster is rather modest though, his first draft post said eleven inches ( and counting)!!!

seriously, part is due to the thai way of business of pushing the price up to what the market will bear ( particularly for farang) that can work in the short term but is short sighted when the economy is turning down. a certain mister cohen reduced prices during a downturn. the result - Tesco. Read the book - "Pile It High Sell it Cheap" Should be compulsory Thai reading.

[wasabi]

I was just thinking about the Thai trait of raising prices in the face of weak sales. I wonder if the severity of this downturn will force them to change that policy?

[JoeThePoster]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

For a fraction of that cost, you can have your hands enlarged - even grade B or C hospitals could do it for you - problem solved.

Edited February 2, 2009 by JoeThePoster

[ray08]

I was just thinking about the Thai trait of raising prices in the face of weak sales. I wonder if the severity of this downturn will force them to change that policy?

Raising prices for weak sales ,works when you still have a market to sell to , 2009 is not the time to get cockey and raise prices to compensate , myself, and i would take most people will just say NO ,I have now seen prices actually beggining to drop in some cases where vendors are now happy to get what they can , than to wait for the big sale that never comes ,

[mrtoad]

I work in the Healthcare sector, and for certain a number of the hospitals are seeing a big drop in patient numbers. The strong baht, along with the combination of political unstability and airport closures, compunded to hit hospitals like Bangkok Hospital and Samitivej very hard before Christams. The lack of diversification into other areas of care provision means, that a number of the hospitals are going to suffer heavily, as they have become far to reliant on medical tourists, rather than balancing between local provision, community based services and regular health care provision. The problem is, that the A grade hospitals do not have a massive captive market, as they are pretty expensive in relation to average peoples wages.

I was speaking with a contact in of the Grade A establishments at the week, and they have started to cull staff, and some of those are directly related to the medical tourism aspect of the hospital. So, it looks like this is going to be a tough year in that sector.

[samuibeachcomber]

just out of interest can anyone name a few A grade,Bgrade,c grade.for example living on samui,the bangkok-samui hospital is considered the best here,and most expensive,what grade would it come under?

[dinthailand]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

For a fraction of that cost, you can have your hands enlarged - even grade B or C hospitals could do it for you - problem solved.

this thread gets better and better!

[misterman21]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

For a fraction of that cost, you can have your hands enlarged - even grade B or C hospitals could do it for you - problem solved.

Actually you hit the nail on the head. The reason for consideration of the op. origanally was due to the very small size of my gfs hands. A cheap option could be to buy her some ski gloves -or welders gauntlets

[jayjayjayjay]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

I too have always dreamt about that magical 6 inches, I found it better just to fold it in half.

[alfieconn]

just out of interest can anyone name a few A grade,Bgrade,c grade.for example living on samui,the bangkok-samui hospital is considered the best here,and most expensive,what grade would it come under?

About grade "z" i would suggest !

[Ricardo]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

For a fraction of that cost, you can have your hands enlarged - even grade B or C hospitals could do it for you - problem solved.

Actually you hit the nail on the head. The reason for consideration of the op. origanally was due to the very small size of my gfs hands. A cheap option could be to buy her some ski gloves -or welders gauntlets

Or perhaps pay for her DD-operation ?

On your original post, one might in fairness expect, a 1/3 reduction=in=price for a 1/3-reduction ?

[thedoctor]

haha you guys are too funny tonight. i can tell none of you work in the A, grade hospitals. due to go under

regards for cheering me up

[mogoso]

I was just thinking about the Thai trait of raising prices in the face of weak sales. I wonder if the severity of this downturn will force them to change that policy?

Raising prices for weak sales ,works when you still have a market to sell to , 2009 is not the time to get cockey and raise prices to compensate , myself, and i would take most people will just say NO ,I have now seen prices actually beggining to drop in some cases where vendors are now happy to get what they can , than to wait for the big sale that never comes ,

Too bad my state, county and city I live in all wanna raise taxes. The state will still base it on income, but the county and city will base it on property. Still no telling what Nobama will end up doing.

[dinthailand]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

Carefull having a penis reduction the doctors here are used to removing it completly... you might wake up with a whole rather than a smaller penis....

anyway all jokes aside, i think that the strong baht plays a big role in the drastic downturn...

good joke. keep them coming. poster is rather modest though, his first draft post said eleven inches ( and counting)!!!

seriously, part is due to the thai way of business of pushing the price up to what the market will bear ( particularly for farang) that can work in the short term but is short sighted when the economy is turning down. a certain mister cohen reduced prices during a downturn. the result - Tesco. Read the book - "Pile It High Sell it Cheap" Should be compulsory Thai reading.

[robertthegreat]

A Mate of mine has 12" but does not use it as a rule

MY wife said to me give me 6" and make me bleed, So i Fxxk Her twice and gave her a smack in the mouth .

OK i,ll get me hat and coat

[Crushdepth]

Yes that would probably be a good idea

[JoeThePoster]

haha you guys are too funny tonight. i can tell none of you work in the A, grade hospitals. due to go under

regards for cheering me up

Doctor, please be patient. The economy is being nursed back to health by the empty suit from Eton.

[EmU]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

I too have always dreamt about that magical 6 inches, I found it better just to fold it in half.

size doesn't matter guys if you give them an inch they think they'er a RULER

[Hairy]

You know why women have such difficulty with measurements, right? Guys always tell them that this:

|<----->|

is ten inches.

[sibeymai]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

For a fraction of that cost, you can have your hands enlarged - even grade B or C hospitals could do it for you - problem solved.

Actually you hit the nail on the head. The reason for consideration of the op. origanally was due to the very small size of my gfs hands. A cheap option could be to buy her some ski gloves -or welders gauntlets

Or change your GF for a katoey. I'm told they have bigger hands.

[JoeThePoster]

welders gauntlets

You mean these?

[feens]

I recently cancelled an operation (rather delicate) due to a huge increase in price. The operation was to cost approx 130k baht, but at the last moment the hospital increased the price to 150k. This represents a 50% increase, taking into account currency devaluation.

I was to have my penis size adjusted to 6 inches - but there is no way I will pay 150k just to have 3 inches removed

I too have always dreamt about that magical 6 inches, I found it better just to fold it in half.

so instead of coming you went???

[sbk]

I have no idea how we got this far off topic, but please, lets do try to discuss hospitals??