Scammed At Theptarin Hospital !

[Rama10]

I had high fever, asked at the reception of my hotel for a doctor and

they told me to go in the nearest hospital, the THEPTARIN Hospital in Rama IV.

Once there they checked my weight, pressure, height, etc

then on for a check with the frontline doctor who asked me

some generic questions and had a look at my mouth concluding

"it's just a cold but you need to stay here one night for

IV injections of antibiotics".

At that point my brain wasn't in the condition to make too many

discussions and i just accepted my fate, so another nurse

arrives and asks me which room i like, from 800 bath (4 beds) to

private, VIP, deluxe, etc .. of course i chose the 800 bath room,

but after a while she comes back claiming that since they can't

know if my "flu" is N1H1 (influenza A or B, as they say) their

policy is to allocate patients only in single room, that means

2300 bath/day + 1700 bath of nursing etc.

Reluctantly i accept again, so next i'm moved in another room for

a chest X-ray, and finally moved upstairs in this single room

with balcony and soon i found myself lying in bed with an IV

and nurses popping up pills in my mouth along with a spray for

the mouth and antibacterial candies for the sore-throat.

Food sucks BIG TIME and is priced 130 bath/meal.

Nothing to complain about the service, every half an hour nurses

come to me checking pressure, temperature, and other vital functions.

They also take me two samples from the nose in order to spot

eventual "influenza A or B" and two blood samples for other tests.

Notice that i never ever agreed on this, nor anybody ever told me

about the price it will cost !

Next day fever is over and i feel GREAT, so i call the nurses and

tell them i'm ready to leave.

This must be anathema to their hears as they all try to tell me

BS about how much my condition is still unstable and leaving now

is out of question, finally the doctor in charge arrives and

tell me i must stay there another couple days (!), check my mouth

again and with horror "discovers" i may have "tonsillitis".

As this being the last straw i was starting already to smell shit i insisted

to leave right away, the nurses weren't much happy about it and it took

two hours to get the IV out of my arm, dress up, and being forced to sign

a paper where i declare that i'm leaving the hospital despite the doctors

suggesting otherwise.

Finally they take me to the cashier, and the bill is ... more than 15.000 bath ! 370 euro !

<deleted> ?

- 3700 bath for "impatient medication" ?

- 3660 bath for their useless blood test

- 2300 bath for the single room

- 1600 bath for "impatient care"

- 800 bath for "nursing charge"

- etc etc

On top of this, all i get for my 15K bath is a receipt and nothing else :

- No papers where the doctor signing with name and surname acknowledges my exact

pathology (up to now i still don't know if it was just a cold, a flu, a tonsillitis, or whatever else !)

- No papers with the results of my blood and nose samples analysis.

- No copy of any paper i signed, including the one where i take responsability for

leaving the hospital.

- Nothing else about diagnosis, methodics, or whatever in the middle.

Having been already in other thai hospitals and especially at the Chiang Mai Ram

in Chiang Mai (which beats the Theptarin hands down in any field ...) i feel

cheated, scammed, and ripped off.

4000 bath for a blood test withtou even getting the results printed out ?

And 3700 for "impatient medication", it means those 2 bottles of IV water/salt/sugar fluid ?

Unbelievable.

Today i went back there asking for a refund, talked with the cashier and other

girls of their customer service, they were all polite and even apologized

but end of this story my case will be "escalated" to some boss upstairs

and i will eventually heard back some news soon, yeah right !

I would be glad to hear any opinions on this matter and if any of you had

similar experiences with this hospital.

My experience is obviously very very negative and i hope it can be a warning

to anyone thinking about falling in their trap.

Edited October 6, 2010 by Rama10

[howardprice]

Sorry for what you went through but, the Thai way. <snip> That was a disgraceful charge and they know it. I am sure from experience all the pills one is given for any minor thing that they are on commission.

Edited October 8, 2010 by soundman
Removed negative stereo-typical comment concerning all Thai's.

[Gippy]

I don't know if you were scammed but those prices are certainly higher than my local hospital, Mongkutwattana on Chaeng Wattana road. I recently had a three day stay there on antibiotic IV, numerous tests and a huge bag of pills to take home. Total cost was just over 7,000 baht.

[rak sa_ngop]

I don't know if you were scammed but those prices are certainly higher than my local hospital, Mongkutwattana on Chaeng Wattana road. I recently had a three day stay there on antibiotic IV, numerous tests and a huge bag of pills to take home. Total cost was just over 7,000 baht.

On the other hand if you visited one of the 'expat' BKK hospitals (BNH, Bumrungrad etc) you would have probably paid more. An 11 day stay in BNH a few years ago averaged out for me about 30,000 baht a day with only minor medical procedures.

[random]

A friend was recently in Buumungrad after falling down pissed and splitting his head, he managed to call another friend who is very much like me, he went through the bill with a fine toothcomb and found many treatments the guy had not received, including one particular injection that the staff could not even point out where in the injection wound was, they just load the bill up with all sorts of nonsense, then pack you off with mostly pointless high cost medicines. Never take the medicines from the hospitals a an outpatient, write them down and buy them elsewhere, they always have paracetamol on there at 10 times the price you can buy them for, also many of the drugs do the same job so they double up. Personally I amazed the Insurance companies have not clamped down on this.

[trogers]

I never go to a hospital for flu treatment. A visit to the local clinic costs less than Bt500 including a jab.

Had my H1N1 vaccine last March in Singapore.

Edited October 7, 2010 by trogers

[Dakhar]

They claim you have a "cold or flu" bot of which are a virus.

News flash, antibiotics don't do jack crap for. Antibiotics are used for bacterial infections, not viral.

So if you can find ANY thing that specifically states you have a virus, and they treated with antibiotics, you may have a prayer on getting your money back.

Inphasis on the word MAY

[Rama10]

For the record two days ago i had a surgery on the abdomen at the Bangkok Christian Hospital.

Total fee was just 11.000 bath including antibiotics etc to take home !

[jan1van1hooten]

I never go to a hospital for flu treatment. A visit to the local clinic costs less than Bt500 including a jab.

Had my H1N1 vaccine last March in Singapore.

Sometimes if you have a virus the doctors will in fact prescribe antibiotics for you to prevent a secondary infection from starting.

[trogers]

I never go to a hospital for flu treatment. A visit to the local clinic costs less than Bt500 including a jab.

Had my H1N1 vaccine last March in Singapore.

Sometimes if you have a virus the doctors will in fact prescribe antibiotics for you to prevent a secondary infection from starting.

Yes, a clinic will also give you antibiotics, tablets for fever and pain, and others if there is cough and cold. The jab is usually given to bring down high fever.

Note: you will usually be told to return if fever does not subside within 3 days, which is the usual time period for your body immune system to do its work.

Edited October 12, 2010 by trogers