Health Costs

[amarco]

My friends daughter took ill recently and after a visit to a doctor his advice was to

take the girl to hospital, where they found it was the appendix.

So two nights in hospital and the resulting operation, my friend tells me its almost 30.000 bht

and she wants to bring her daughter home only hours after the operation because of the high costs.

Not wise i would of thought but she says she will take her daughter to a government hospital to recover.

I asked the question why go to the private hospital and she tells me its quicker to get seen and if the operation was

needed it would be done.

So what i would like to know is......Is it really that better going private in Thailand especially for the Thai natiomals,

and 30.000 bht is that about the right price to pay ?

[Sheryl]

30,000 for appendectomy is a low end price for a Thai private hospital.

For an acute and straight-forward problem like appendicitis, there should be no problem at all in accessing appropriate care at a government hospital as long as it is a provincial level hospital or higher. Non-acute problems will indeed encounter red tapes and waits in line, but something like this can go directly to the ER and -- again assuming it is a proper level hospital -- urgent surgery will be promptly performed.

All this holds true for both Thai nationals and foreigners, although the latter will be up against language barriers in communicatioon.

The negative attitude towards government hospitals I think stems from 2 things: (1) non-urgent care (outpatient, or elective surgeries) do indeed entail a lot of waiting and jumping through bureaucratic hoops and (2) inter-personal communication on the part of the hospital staff, not a strong point anywhere in Thailand, is especially bad in public hospitals. Naturally patients tend to distrust when no explanations about the recommended treatment or procedure is provided.

Lastly some people are not clear on how the Thai public health system is structured and the vast differences between what is available at different levels within it. Going to a health center or a district hospital for much of anything serious will usually prove unhelpful (although these are good sources of preventive care like ante-natal checks, immunization). Provincial, regional and national hospitals on the other hand provide a good standard of curative care albeit with poor amenities and often brusque and rushed communication.