Working As A Doctor In Thailand, Possibillities?

[hhk89]

Hello!

I have been searcing the web, but I cant find a good answer, so a friend of me recommanded me to try to ask you people on this site.

I am 23 year old young man, living in Norway. My dream is to move to Thailand and have a good life with stability. Because of this I am going to study medicine soon. I want to start a life in Thailand(been working there for 6 month earlier). Can someone with good knowledge about this topic please help me?

I am wondering:

1: Where should I get my education? Is it possible to get a good education in medicine on english in Thailand? In another asian country maybe? Or in Norway/Europe? My goal is to end up as a doctor in Thailand as i mentioned.

2:How is the possibillities for me to get a work permit and a fulltime job as a physician/doctor in Thailand after I graduate?

3:What can a farang expect in sallary?

4 If its important that I spesialize in something, for example surgery, if so, is that possible to do in Thailand if I get my education in another country?

I know my chances will be much better if I learn Thai, so I am going to do that as well.

Please dont answer this post if you are not 100% sure. This is realy important for me.

Hope someone with knowledge about the topic takes the time to answer.

Regards

[JohnC]

All doctors here have to qualify outside the country I.e Europe, Australia, USA, to work here you need to be fluent in Thai and pass written exams in Thai. I suggest you google foreign doctors working in Thailand and ask their advice.

[endure]

All doctors here have to qualify outside the country I.e Europe, Australia, USA,

?

[yoshiwara]

Thailand welcomes doctors with so-so English.

[AyG]

I looked into this 4 or 5 years ago for a highly qualified consultant paediatrician. The conclusion was that he would have had to pass extensive medical exams in Thai before being allowed to practice, even if he was only going to be treating English speaking patients. Given the extensive technical vocabulary in medicine, the level of Thai required would be very high.

If you look at the lists of doctors on any of the top hospital websites you'll see virtually no western names - and those that appear to be western could well be half-Thai.

The hurdles to becoming a doctor in Thailand for a foreigner are currently almost impossibly high.

That said, with the opening of the ASEAN free labour market in 2015 should make it possible for a doctor qualified in one ASEAN country to work in another. It's unclear how well this is going to work in practice, and whether any additional barriers will be created, e.g. testing in Thai language skills. (The fear at the moment is that there's going to be a mass exodus of English language speaking doctors to other countries in ASEAN where the pay rates are significantly better.)

[edwinclapham]

There was a thread last year.. see Sheryl's post //19 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/459827-what-do-american-doctors-make-in-thailand/

[Gone]

I think you still have about 6 to 8 years of study to decide and to learn fluent Thai.

[jalansanitwong]

Who is youre customer base?

Thais wont go to you because you cant speak,write/read Thai and youre a farang so they'll expect you to be expensive.

Most farangs wont go to you for the same last reason. I go to an excellent English fluent Indian doctor in my soi for a few dollars.

Dentists the same deal.

Forget it. Work as a doctor in Europe ,over charge everyone and have holidays in Phuket with pretty girls who cost about 100 euros a day.

Your far too young to live here in LOS. You'll get into trouble.

If you do come here stay well away from Pattaya. Its turning into a geriatric home for the criminally insane and the girls/boys are hideous.

Edited July 14, 2012 by jalansanitwong

[yoshiwara]

Who is youre customer base?

Thais wont go to you because you cant speak,write/read Thai and youre a farang so they'll expect you to be expensive.

Most farangs wont go to you for the same last reason. I go to an excellent English fluent Indian doctor in my soi for a few dollars.

Dentists the same deal.

Forget it. Work as a doctor in Europe ,over charge everyone and have holidays in Phuket with pretty girls who cost about 100 euros a day.

Your far too young to live here in LOS. You'll get into trouble.

If you do come here stay well away from Pattaya. Its turning into a geriatric home for the criminally insane and the girls/boys are hideous.

That's a turnoff?

[harrry]

Who is youre customer base?

Thais wont go to you because you cant speak,write/read Thai and youre a farang so they'll expect you to be expensive.

Most farangs wont go to you for the same last reason. I go to an excellent English fluent Indian doctor in my soi for a few dollars.

Dentists the same deal.

Forget it. Work as a doctor in Europe ,over charge everyone and have holidays in Phuket with pretty girls who cost about 100 euros a day.

Your far too young to live here in LOS. You'll get into trouble.

If you do come here stay well away from Pattaya. Its turning into a geriatric home for the criminally insane and the girls/boys are hideous.

That's a turnoff?

unless he specialises in psychiatry.

[hhk89]

Like I said, please dont answer if you do not know what you are talking about. I have been searcing the web, and googlet, but I can not get a decent answer to my questions. So please dont make this anymore confusing for me then it has to be.

Of course, there are many more thai doctors compared to foreign doctors, but still, there are may foreign doctors there. So please save me the BS.

No one can tell me what I can do or can not do. Like forget it? you get into trouble? Who are you to give me such big advise in life, you seem to be totally different mentally than me. Actually, you seem like the quite opposit then me. I was not asking what to do, I was asking how to do it.

And if you are not 100% sure what you are talking about, then dont spend your energy answering.

harrry.unless he specialises in psychiatry. can you tell me more if you are sure?

Edited July 14, 2012 by hhk89

[ThailandDenmark417]

Your far too young to live here in LOS.

Nonsense.

[zzdocxx]

How many years have you got ahead of you until your medical training is complete?

How is your Thai language skill after living there previously for six months? Where did you live? Were you working? Do you currently have a girlfriend in Thailand?

Maybe you could contact Iain Corness in Thailand and see if he can shed some light on the matter.

Good luck.

[elektrified]

There are farang physicians working here in Thailand. Do some research. Good luck.

[canardo]

There is a German Dentist in Pattaya, who claims to be the first officially operating foreign dentist in Thailand.

He had to go many extra miles to get the permission to work in Thailand as a doctor, even though he had all papers from Germany and USA, he had to do most of it again in Thailand to get certificated, speaking and writing Thai fluently is essential as you have to pass as well an oral / spoken test here...

Here is the website of that dentist (no advertising):

http://www.travel-dental.com/web_engl/dr.ramin_engl.htm

Maybe you contact him for advise!

Good luck!

[Paul888]

I am 100% sure of one thing.......that you are putting the cart way too far in front of the horse.

It's good to have a goal and a target but seriously man, nobody can give you advice on working as a doctor in Thailand when you haven't even started studying medicine

Some Thai doctors may appear as though they attended a one hour course on simple medicine, but you actually have to put a little bit more effort into it than that.

[lannarebirth]

There was a thread last year.. see Sheryl's post //19 http://www.thaivisa....ke-in-thailand/

As I allueed to in that previous thread, the OP should send a PM to ThaiVisa members " idrankwhat " or " BKKMD ". who are foreignb doctors practicing medicine in Thailand. They should be able to provide him with far more accurate information than other ThaiVisa posters. If he does learn something on the subject, I hope the OP comes back and posts the information so that others may lear.

[yoshiwara]

Like I said, please dont answer if you do not know what you are talking about. I have been searcing the web, and googlet, but I can not get a decent answer to my questions. So please dont make this anymore confusing for me then it has to be.

Of course, there are many more thai doctors compared to foreign doctors, but still, there are may foreign doctors there. So please save me the BS.

No one can tell me what I can do or can not do. Like forget it? you get into trouble? Who are you to give me such big advise in life, you seem to be totally different mentally than me. Actually, you seem like the quite opposit then me. I was not asking what to do, I was asking how to do it.

And if you are not 100% sure what you are talking about, then dont spend your energy answering.

harrry.unless he specialises in psychiatry. can you tell me more if you are sure?

All we seem to know right now is that you don't have any medical qualifications. And maybe you don't have good enough qualifications to get into medical school anyway. So what's the point fantasising about Thailand? Golden test: you get off a plane in Hong Kong/Singapore/Bangkok and someone asks you 'So what have you got?' So what have you got?

[PattayaPhom]

Bangkok hospitols have hired foreign Drs that do not speak Thai, you coud try contacting them.

[chainarong]

All doctors here have to qualify outside the country I.e Europe, Australia, USA, to work here you need to be fluent in Thai and pass written exams in Thai. I suggest you google foreign doctors working in Thailand and ask their advice.

Not so, there's a beautiful big Uni in Phitsanulok that caters for medical degree etc, pretty nurses there too

[Soutpeel]

Bangkok hospitols have hired foreign Drs that do not speak Thai, you coud try contacting them.

Yes...but the OP is not a doctor yet...

[The Dancer]

"My dream is to move to Thailand and have a good life with stability. Because of this I am going to study medicine soon."

To my mind these are two separate ideals. I would suggest think to yourself which one is the more important.

If it's the first, then I would say the question to ask is what sort of education should I pursue (and where) in order to be competitive as a farang for a well-paying situation in the LOS. The answer might indeed be medicine, but very well may not be. Keep an open mind. Being young you can afford to.

If it's the second, then the suggestion would be to simply focus on becoming the best doctor you can be according to your own abilities and inclination (which might not be surgery time comes to specialize in a few years). After the eight or so years it will take to become a full-fledged physician you might want to re-assess your desire to relocate to Thailand. If it's still burning bright then, to my mind knowing the kind of money physicians make in the US (don't know what's the situation in more socilaized Norway), the easiest route might simply to be to live frugally (Mercedes instead of Ferrari) for a few years while you sock away enough to retire happily ever after to a villa in Samui.

[RAZZELL]

Isn't 23/24 a bit old to start studying medicine?

RAZZ

Edited July 16, 2012 by RAZZELL