Removing Tumour - Which Hospital In Chiang Mai?

[stament]

Hi,

Just had some bad news. My wife has an ovarian and dermoid tumour (according to the doctor's report from an examination). She went to Chiang Mai Ram who bizarrely quoted 50k and 70k for the operation.

Certainly confused me as I thought you'd just be given one price for the recommended treatment. Guessing there must be two different approaches to dealing with it. I'm in UK so didn't see the repport but my wife emailed me.

Obviously I'd like to get this done asap. Can anyone recommend a hospital for this type of treatment? I think she's going to find out the cost at a couple of other hospitals. She doesn't want to spend the money on going private but I'm concerned she'll have to wait ages for Goverment hospital treatment. I also want her to have the operation carried out in Thailand not the UK. I was going to CM next week for a holiday and to bring her and son back to UK but would prefer her to have operation in Chiang Mai. Also she wouldn't want to have the operation in UK which is understandable (foreign country, non-native language, etc).

Just wondered if anyone else had had similar treatment or could recommend a hospital if Ram is no good.

Many thanks

[harrry]

She won't wait if it is urgent. I can strongly recomend SuanDOrk...(Maharaj) The care is good and I have had an op there and they are very very clean. If your wife can get a free scheme card and nominate it as her hospital it is free. If not you are probably looking at less than 20k...

I had a couple of broken fingers set and pinned ( about 45 minutes op) and it cost me 15000 including 4 nights stay.

It would be worth taking her papers and seing them.... They seem to clear everyone that goes in the morning by lunch time.

Edited September 11, 2010 by harrry

[orang37]

Sawasdee Khrup Khun Stament,

Very sorry to hear this bad news about your wife's condition.

I join with Khun Harry in recommending Maharaj Hospital, and more specifically in recommending the Sriphat (sometimes spelled Sripat) administrative group within that very large hospital/teaching-hospital/CMU Medical School complex. Sriphat is where many farangs go. It seems obvious your wife is a Thai citizen from your message, and we don't make any assumptions about her being treated at Sriphat vs. going "straight into" the "general" hospital's system except that we believe she would be charged the higher "non-Thai" rate (and receive much faster and more "privileged" care ?).

Dr. Loavicharn at Maharaj/Sriphat is the head oncologist at the radiation clinic, and has a strong international reputation, American trained and board-certified. We're not personally familiar with the surgical care there, but we were treated (chemo and radiation) for lower tongue cancer there (successfully) about four years ago, and have nothing but praise for the radiation clinic, the Sriphat hospital wing we were in, the nurses, etc.

If you search on this forum (use the "Site Search" facility at the upper right of this page) on the terms "Maharaj," "Sriphat," and "Sripat," as well as "cancer" and "surgery," you can tap into many discussions that have taken place here on this forum, many in this year, regarding Maharaj/Sriphat compared to CM Ram and other hospitals.

And, since the "urgency of surgery" must be a primary concern of yours right now, hopefully you can quickly locate a resource in Chiang Mai to interpret for you what the "staging" of your wife's cancer is, and what the implications of stage and type of cancer are for both immediate and long-term strategy for health.

You may find some "comfort," as we did, in reading the essay by famous scientist and writer of very popular books on science, Stephen Jay Gould, called "The Median Is Not the Message." Gould survived his own first cancer (mesothelimia, usually associated with asbestos exposure) by twenty years, and wrote this essay specifically to inform people facing potentially life-threatening diseases. The essay has become a "classic" that is frequently talked about, passed along, in on-line cancer self-help forums :

Gould's Essay

When you get to the point where you are getting medical information about the "odds" of treatment outcome, possible recurrence, side-effects, etc., this essay, ioho, can really help you to appraise that information calmly and rationally.

take care, best, ~o:37;

[amexpat]

I had a couple of broken fingers set and pinned ( about 45 minutes op) and it cost me 15000 including 4 nights stay.

Best wishes for the OP and wife.

Excuse me, please, but a 4 night stay for broken fingers really provokes my curiosity. In other words, <deleted>?

Maybe it was just more convenient than returning frequently?

[elektrified]

I concur that Sripat is excellent but they have recently raised their prices significantly.

[mcgriffith]

Best hopes and wishes for a speedy recovery to the OP's wife.

I have used both Ram and Sripat. Both very good hospitals.

I would lean towards recommending Sripat Special Clinic (13th floor).

It seems to be the hospital of choice for Thai nationals who are on the civil servant paid plan.

I go there every year for my annual physical, and understand that many, if not most of the specialists there are teaching doctors at CMU medical school.

Again, best wishes to your wife.

[Loaded]

Sawasdee Khrup Khun Stament,

Very sorry to hear this bad news about your wife's condition.

I join with Khun Harry in recommending Maharaj Hospital, and more specifically in recommending the Sriphat (sometimes spelled Sripat) administrative group within that very large hospital/teaching-hospital/CMU Medical School complex. Sriphat is where many farangs go. It seems obvious your wife is a Thai citizen from your message, and we don't make any assumptions about her being treated at Sriphat vs. going "straight into" the "general" hospital's system except that we believe she would be charged the higher "non-Thai" rate (and receive much faster and more "privileged" care ?).

Dr. Loavicharn at Maharaj/Sriphat is the head oncologist at the radiation clinic, and has a strong international reputation, American trained and board-certified. We're not personally familiar with the surgical care there, but we were treated (chemo and radiation) for lower tongue cancer there (successfully) about four years ago, and have nothing but praise for the radiation clinic, the Sriphat hospital wing we were in, the nurses, etc.

If you search on this forum (use the "Site Search" facility at the upper right of this page) on the terms "Maharaj," "Sriphat," and "Sripat," as well as "cancer" and "surgery," you can tap into many discussions that have taken place here on this forum, many in this year, regarding Maharaj/Sriphat compared to CM Ram and other hospitals.

And, since the "urgency of surgery" must be a primary concern of yours right now, hopefully you can quickly locate a resource in Chiang Mai to interpret for you what the "staging" of your wife's cancer is, and what the implications of stage and type of cancer are for both immediate and long-term strategy for health.

You may find some "comfort," as we did, in reading the essay by famous scientist and writer of very popular books on science, Stephen Jay Gould, called "The Median Is Not the Message." Gould survived his own first cancer (mesothelimia, usually associated with asbestos exposure) by twenty years, and wrote this essay specifically to inform people facing potentially life-threatening diseases. The essay has become a "classic" that is frequently talked about, passed along, in on-line cancer self-help forums :

Gould's Essay

When you get to the point where you are getting medical information about the "odds" of treatment outcome, possible recurrence, side-effects, etc., this essay, ioho, can really help you to appraise that information calmly and rationally.

take care, best, ~o:37;

Excellent post

[harrry]

I had a couple of broken fingers set and pinned ( about 45 minutes op) and it cost me 15000 including 4 nights stay.

Best wishes for the OP and wife.

Excuse me, please, but a 4 night stay for broken fingers really provokes my curiosity. In other words, <deleted>?

Maybe it was just more convenient than returning frequently?

OT but I have severe COPD which needed to be stabalised before the operation and monitored after otherwise it would have been two nights...Night of admission operate next day and release on the third. ie 2 nights. The care is excellent and the bed costs 65 baht a day. I visited someone at sripat yesterday and the bed cost is 2600 a day just to start. Their prices have doubled in a year or so.

[elektrified]

I had a couple of broken fingers set and pinned ( about 45 minutes op) and it cost me 15000 including 4 nights stay.

Best wishes for the OP and wife.

Excuse me, please, but a 4 night stay for broken fingers really provokes my curiosity. In other words, <deleted>?

Maybe it was just more convenient than returning frequently?

OT but I have severe COPD which needed to be stabalised before the operation and monitored after otherwise it would have been two nights...Night of admission operate next day and release on the third. ie 2 nights. The care is excellent and the bed costs 65 baht a day. I visited someone at sripat yesterday and the bed cost is 2600 a day just to start. Their prices have doubled in a year or so.

Hi Harry, glad to hear that you recovered O.K. You say that "the bed costs 65 baht a day." I find that astonishing. When my son was just an infant he was ill and his medical insurance had not kicked in yet. (The earliest health insurance can begin coverage is at 31 days old.) He was in Sripat, where he was born, for the first few days but the tab was running at well over 5,500 per day after the cost of delivery so he was moved over to the Suan Dok side of the hospital for about 15 days. I recall the shared room cost alone to be 800 Baht per night and not 65. His bill was in the many tens of thousands. He did not have surgery. Perhaps they made a mistake on your bill?

In any event, things are changing over at Suan Dok as they are becoming semi-privatized for reasons that were discussed in this forum previously. The costs will be substantially higher there once the plan is fully implemented and they will no longer admit people who are uninsured unless they can provide a deposit or some security. The hospital has been losing money for years now.

Edited September 12, 2010 by elektrified