Hospitals In Bkk: Which Are The Best And The Worse

[AsiaWolfie]

I would like to listen to some experiences BKK-residents have made at hospitals there, good and bad experiences.....

which one to recommend ? and why ? good doctors ? good treatment ? english speaking staff ? short waiting time ? not too expensive ?

and which one are the no-go-hospitals ? slaughterhouses rather than hospitals ?

[bogeye]

THE BUMRUNGRAD HOSPITAL SOI 3 SUKHUMVIT is a first class hospital with english speaking staff and docters i have used it several times on my last trip my daughter had a kidney infection a cost of treatment and medicine 800 bht kidney i presentley have afriend undergoing thyroid treatment the bill ever 6weeks is 1100 bht for blood count 400bht for specialist 100 bht for nurse medicine about 1500 bht for 3 different drugs i can not speak mor higly of the place the only other hospital i have had dealings with is theKING CHULALONGKORN cheap with english speaking staff but very busy used mainly by thais it is good also but bumrungrad for me it is really good

[Rasel]

THE BUMRUNGRAD HOSPITAL .

I am a patent of them from last 4 years and as well I am doing treatment of my mother .

For me they are very good.

[pluto_manibo]

Yan Hee is also recommendable...Bumrungrad is good depends what you go in for.

[Curt]

BNH is a another good Westerner focused hospital

[Rinrada]

Spent 3 nights on the floor when K.w had an op ....No complaints....Highly recco...

http://www.phyathai.com/phyathai2/indexeng.html

[Captain Chaos]

Pluto has it right - the quality of care at Bumrungrad can be a bit variable. In my opinion, some departments are blatantly overworked (take on too many patients) and the quality of care suffers. I struggled with a bad back for 3 or 4 months this year and eventually it became clear Bumrungrad didn't have an answer. I decided to try BNH who (i) took time to understand the problem and then (ii) fixed it quickly & efficiently.

My recommendation would be try smaller hospitals such as BNH or Samitivej, because they are just as modern but less busy.

Just my opinion.....

[pedro01]

Pluto has it right - the quality of care at Bumrungrad can be a bit variable. In my opinion, some departments are blatantly overworked (take on too many patients) and the quality of care suffers. I struggled with a bad back for 3 or 4 months this year and eventually it became clear Bumrungrad didn't have an answer. I decided to try BNH who (i) took time to understand the problem and then (ii) fixed it quickly & efficiently.

My recommendation would be try smaller hospitals such as BNH or Samitivej, because they are just as modern but less busy.

Just my opinion.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree - it depends on the doctor.

For midwife - I'd certainly use Khun Sumon at Bumrungrad again (well, the wife).

For sports surgery - Mr Wichan at Bangkok Hospital is the best I've met. The ones at Bumrungrad were bloody useless.

So - maybe tell us which kind of treatment interests you & we can recommend a doctor...

[Digger]

I have said this before, but one of the features I like best about Bumrungrad (apart from Starbucks) is the ability to search out which specialists they have on their website. Personally If I go there I adopt a simple strategy:

1. Look up what kind of doctor I want to see

2. Scan through the online profiles of said doctors

3. Choose someone who is preferably a recognised expert in their field - just look for the professors at Chula or Mahidol and in my experience you cant go far wrong. These are the people that train the doctors going through these med schools.

4. Avoid Saturdays - Bumrungrad is a wild place on Saturdays - looks like the world and his wife are there.

The cost differentials between the best and the rest are probably less than 100 baht for a consultation.

By the way avoid any doctor that shows on his resume that he has worked at a Police Hospital - them patients dont walk out, but come out on trolleys without a pulse.

[leisurely]

I would have recommened BNH as it is smaller than Bumrungrad, however, last week I took our daughter to visit and was given the usual bag of medicines including an out of date bottle of antibiotics. NOt a huge problem per se, however I wondered whether it could be carried over to include vaccinations potentially much more problematic. My advice now is to check everything before you leave and in the case of vaccinations ask to see the expiry date on the vial before you are innoculated.

For paediatric care I would highly recommend Dr Buppa at Samitivej

Gynaecology at Samitivej too

General practitioner Dr Visit at Samitivej

I don't like Bumrungrad (despite the starbucks etc) as it is too big and a bit disorganised for my liking.

[cobra]

Bumrungrad could use some more GP's, quite a wait last time.

But their English is very good and that could be a factor when trying to communicate what's wrong, your wishes, etc,

[haroldc]

For general care our family uses Sikarin Hospital (on Srinakarin Road, near Macro). Very professional, good service, and not expensive. Most of the doctors and staff speak at least some English, and they have both English and Japanese translators available. I have a mild heart condition so I've been going there monthly for almost 2 years, and I've never had a negative experience.

Now for something serious, my choice would be Ramathibodi, one of the 2 hospitals of Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine. Going there is not for the faint-hearted, as the inital impression can be very disheartening. No air-conditioning, on a weekday there are probably 1,000 people waiting in the outpatient clinics, and the environment is definitely not foreign-style. You would definitely need to either speak Thai or have someone come with you to interpret.

I needed a fairly minor but sophisticated micro-surgical procedure performed. The cost in the USA would have been in the range $7-10,000 and my bank balance was about 40,000 baht. After 3 preliminary visits and a round of tests, I was scheduled for surgery on 3 October.

I went in as a surgical ward patient (that means about 100 patients in a big common room) and spent a total of 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital. The quality of the care was fantastic. There were more than a dozen nurses per shift on the ward, and every patient was checked every two hours. (There was a patient close to me who was in pretty dire straits, and the care he got was incredible.) My surgeon and anesthesiologist were both Mahidol professors and had great "bed-side manners" - no arrogance in their attitudes whatsoever. The ward's attending physician and the surgical residents did rounds morning and night (with their flock of interns and students, of course - it's a teaching hospital).

As for cost, the accounting office asked if I had a Thai taxpayer's id card. Since I did, they told me that the cost would be the same as for a Thai national -- 10,400 baht in total. (If I didn't have the tax id card, the cost would have been 19,700).

So if you really need serious medical help and can manage the language and cultural issues, as far as I'm concerned this is the hospital. And they do have private rooms, which I probably would choose if I was recovering from a major surgical procedure. But the ward was only 200 baht per day and I still got more attention than I needed.