Bangkok Vs. Chiang Mai

[hellodolly]

We see the world as we are, not as it is, somebody said in another thread. Come and look for yourself and see what you think.

That's a very true saying. I will be there very soon to check the place out for myself. I think I will like it, though it may be a bit small for me, as I am generally a big city person. There are a few smaller towns I like though.

LOL size is a view point. Just walk all over the city and you will think it is defiantly a big city. Even with a motor bike it will take you quite a while to see it all.

Of course compared to Bangkok it is just a small city. But as I say walk it and your feet will give you a different story.

[davejones]

We see the world as we are, not as it is, somebody said in another thread. Come and look for yourself and see what you think.

That's a very true saying. I will be there very soon to check the place out for myself. I think I will like it, though it may be a bit small for me, as I am generally a big city person. There are a few smaller towns I like though.

LOL size is a view point. Just walk all over the city and you will think it is defiantly a big city. Even with a motor bike it will take you quite a while to see it all.

Of course compared to Bangkok it is just a small city. But as I say walk it and your feet will give you a different story.

True, but there's usually a lot less choice of things to do and see. There are a few smaller places that I really like though, so depends on the place to a certain extent.

[hellodolly]

We see the world as we are, not as it is, somebody said in another thread. Come and look for yourself and see what you think.

That's a very true saying. I will be there very soon to check the place out for myself. I think I will like it, though it may be a bit small for me, as I am generally a big city person. There are a few smaller towns I like though.

LOL size is a view point. Just walk all over the city and you will think it is defiantly a big city. Even with a motor bike it will take you quite a while to see it all.

Of course compared to Bangkok it is just a small city. But as I say walk it and your feet will give you a different story.

True, but there's usually a lot less choice of things to do and see. There are a few smaller places that I really like though, so depends on the place to a certain extent.

Not being in the night scene myself I am sure how ever that you will find a variety of places that suit you fancy. And don't forget you are not that far removed from the country side. I would imagine in Bangkok the country side would be a urban myth. LOL

You will enjoy Chiang Mai just give it a little time. Sorry we won't be able to supply you with as much traffic as Bangkok can. We can't do every thing.

[cheeryble]

We can agree on a number of things you have written but not on the idea that Bumrungrad is a world class hospital. ..

Steady on.....

The food court at Bumringrad is simply marvellous.

Ad to that a few cakes sent from Paragon, and Bumrungrad's definitely the best.

[jackr]

Regarding the Bumrungrad debate above, I have always had great service there - much, much better than in the UK. And the cost is pretty reasonable, at just a small fraction of costs in UK. But I have to say that I lose respect for hospitals that have KFC, McDs, etc. Shows that they aren't at all interested in people's health.

Sure, if you compare against the UK it;s excellent, but we're actually comparing against elsewhere in Thailand.

But are we not comparing Thailand's best PRIVATE hospital to the UK's state hospitals (ie NHS). That would be folly. If you want to go down that road, you need to look at the likes of the Wellington in London or pit Bangkok's state hospitals against London's state hospitals. You will never find the likes of Great Ormond Street anywhere else in the world, where the care and attention to detail is spot on and genuine (for free), and I have personally always been well received. There is just no comparison with the worst NHS hospital with the best government-run ones here... cattle market anyone!

On the tired BKK/CM debate. Horses for courses; depends if you're a city lover or not. CM--though certainly not what it was even five years ago (loaded as it is with oldies and Chinese/Koreans, more expensive than ever and growing at a silly rate)--has good facilities befitting its size, an international airport, mountains nearby, and real estate probably half that of Bangkok. The latter is the capital city for Pete's sake, so a provincial centre is never going to compare on services. CM may have the few dodgy months, but how about Bangkok's horrendous traffic, permanent pollution and unrelenting, no-escape heat! Personally, it is the last place I'd head. It may have everything and Rattanakosin is nice, but stroll on, I'd sooner be back in Blighty.

[TheVicar]

5) The hospital/medical situation is NOT as good as it is in Bangkok, on any price level. Bangkok has more good, excellent hospitals than CM by far. There is nothing at all like Bumrungrad or Bangkok Hospital (high price end) in terms of quality here. There also is nothing on the medium price level like Kasemrad in Bangkok. The top hospital in CM would be considered below average in Bangkok. Prices are maybe even a bit higher here in CM for medical services because there is less competition. Dentists are about the same or maybe more than in Bangkok (again, less competition).

I strongly disagree with you, I think the quality of medicaql care in Chiang Mai is equally as good if not higher than in Bangkok, certainly the cost of most procedures is at least half in many cases. Sriphat is the semi private wing of Marahraj which is attached to CMU, the medical teaching hospital, at Sriphat you can be seen and treated by medical professors of the university, the same professors who may later move to Bangkok to enrich themselves whilst working at the likes of Bumrungrad. Between Sriphat, Mahraj, Rajavej and RAM there is the full spectrum of medical specialists to a very high standard, full details here http://www.thaivisa....l-specialists/.

Years ago I used to use Bumrungrad and later Bangkok Hospital, eventually I began to question their costing and soon after the quality of their work. I eventually wound up in litigation with one of them and at that time I saw what the commercuial medicine scene in Thailand is really like.

I recently had an MRI of the lumber region, the cost was THB 6,000, last year I had a brain and C-Spine MRI, the cost was 8,000, show me anywhere in Bangkok at the major hospitals where you can those things at even half the cost, you can't, my cost a year ago at Bangkok Hopsital was 18,000!

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you and I have 20 plus years of experience in Bangkok (20 years) and about 6 months here. In part, you misunderstood my post or I was unclear. Bangkok has a wider range of options: Chiang Mai really has nothing like Bumrungrad (sorry about your experience but it may have jaded you) and Bangkok Hospitals: these are world class hospitals with the very latest equipment and top doctors and 5 star hotel treatment for guests in 5 star rooms. People travel from the Middle East, Europe and America to get treatment there. They are both expensive by Thai standards. Scuttlebut I have heard here is that the Ram Hospital chain (which is below average in Bangkok but the best here) opposed Bangkok Hospital's desire to open a hospital here and blocked it politically.

Bangkok has some very, very good medium range hospitals too (like Kasemrad which has 3 hospitals there) that are better than any, in my opinion, here. I'm not impressed at all with Sriphat (it's something of a bad joke that the hospital has put the farangs on the 13th floor!) which looks to me like an ordinary county hospital back in America, or like Chulalongkorn hospital in Bangkok. If you want a hospital with university profs, go to Chula (public) not Sriphat. It is much harder to get into the Bangkok medical schools than the local ones, so guess what about the doctors and who gets the best ones?

The King himself gets treated at a public hospital of high repute in Bangkok. Need I say more?

The quality of medical care in Bangkok is much higher just because of the population factor (CM is 1/12th the size of Bangkok) and the fact that Bangkok, for a reason, is the capital city. It's like comparing London with Manchester or New York City with Peoria, Illinois or Berlin with Leipzig. Doctors like the big time and the big time is in Bangkok in Thailand. I will agree with you that the costs for medical treatment at Bangkok's top hospitals is far in excess of those here. But so, in general, are the care and the quality of the treatment and rooms.

You gave some cost figures and I cannot rebut them because I don't know about them. But let me give you a comparison. You can have a full battery of tests done at Kasemrad for a physical for about B 1,300; here the cost is about B 2,000. Kasemrad also gives users who buy a "frequent user" card, a discount on hospital room (10%), doctor and dental services and medicine (5%). I don't know of any hospital that does that here. In fact, you get one free battery of tests for a physical free with the "frequent user" card at Kasemrad (B3,000 and good for 3 years of discounts). And oh, Kasemrad has better facilities than any hospital here.

We can agree on a number of things you have written but not on the idea that Bumrungrad is a world class hospital. Bumrungrad is a marketing machine, a very good one that has attracted atention globally, I do not believe however that the doctors at Bumrungrad are that much more capable than the doctors at say a University teaching hospital such as Chula, Sriphat or Songkla. Personally I question the motives of some doctors at large private hospitals such as Bumrungrad and I question whether some are in the business to practise medicine or to get reach, methings in many cases it's the latter.

Chiang Mai hospitals do not have the same customer appeal as some in Bangkok, there are no fountains in marble and glass foyers nor branches of KFC and McDonalds in the lobby that will deliver to patients rooms. But if we look at the factors that comprise a good hospital it mainly comes down to one thing only and that is well trained, dedictated and high quality doctors, in that area I think the university hospitals excell. If we then begin to compare cost of service there is no question that doctor, facility and testing costs are far cheaper in Chiang Mai, land costs and cost of living costs are cheaper hence one would expect costs to be lower. It has been some years since I used Bumrungrad but when I did, the cost of a simple ENT or Ortho consultation was around 1,500 baht, at Sriphat the same consultation is around 400 baht. (Yes I'm sure there are places in Bangkok such as the one you quoted that provide cheaper services).

Fifteen years ago I used to believe that the likes of Bumrungrad and Bangkok Hospital were the most wonderful places on earth, they used to make me feel very safe and comfortbale. Today I have more experience of their workings and I have looked closely at the options, for me today it's all about the most ecperienced specialist at a sensible cost and invariably since I live in Chiang Mai, that means Sriphat or occaisionally a specialist working at one of the other private hospitals..

I've been to Sriphat and I repeat it is not funny that the Thais have stuck the farangs on the 13th floor and that that floor is crowded, noisy, and looks like a public county hospital in the USA. Let's face it, doctors (as well as most professionals) originally went into their profession either for monetary reasons or because of altruistic ones, usually it is a mix of both. You must also face that the bright lights of Bangkok and the far better pay there, plus the far better universities there means that a university professor of medicine there is more distinguished, on the whole, and that individual will likely have higher qualifications. But it is a real joke to believe that "university professor" means much in Thailand since there are really no quality universities in the entire country. Sometimes it means "loser" because there is far more money to be made in private clinics and practice and the doctor also has more control over the situation.

I look for bright doctors who have studied abroad, are flexibile in their approach to medicine, keep up with their speciality and for hospitals that are ultra clean, quiet, and spacious with cutting edge technology. To me, Sripat fits none of those qualities, Bumrungrad does. Sorry about your bad experience but statistically speaking, out of 100,000 or so patients there will always be some percentage of people who were misttreated or felt they were misttreated. It sounds like that is your case (you don't mention the outcome of your lawsuit). There are lots of very happy patients who go back to Bangkok Hospital and Bumrungrad repeatedly, and are willing to pay the higher costs because it more than often means better service in a better environment. I like Kasemrad's hospitals because they have top doctors, good (but not 5 star hotel like) facilities, and the cost is reasonable. And the medical discounts there go beyond a discount for just medicine.

Edited November 2, 2012 by TheVicar

[chiang mai]

A few points:

The reception to Sriphat is on the 13th floor, the other floors in that building house all the technology a hospital needs along with specialty wards, you should perhaps wander around the building the next time you are there, CT, MRI Cath Lab etc are all there on the 10th floor.

Sriphat caters to everyone but I would guess that the Thai population represents 98% of its patient base, like a poster before I don't see many farangs there and I have spent much time in the building.

If any of this appears to be a defense or promotion of Sriphat, it is not intended as such, it's merely an attempt to balance out the picture from a very one sided pro Bumrungrad view.

I agree that finding specialists who have studied abroad is a plus.

If I took your view on medcial university teachers in Thailand I would almost certainly never seek medical help anywhere in Thailand!

[Semper]

Dirty, filthy, unhealthy place for sure!

+1

In what way is it dirty and filthy? Do you mean rubbish on the streets or something else?

To be honest. I think 'chiang mai' just made a joke, to keep the riff-raff away.

Edited November 3, 2012 by Semper

[chiang mai]

Dirty, filthy, unhealthy place for sure!

+1

In what way is it dirty and filthy? Do you mean rubbish on the streets or something else?

To be honest. I think 'chiang mai' just made a joke, to keep the riff-raff away.

But try as I may, they still keep comming and even in my neck of the woods too. Why only yesterday a would be tennant elbowed his way through a group of Japanese house wives in the lobby, they complete with sprogs, fifty year old he complete with stubble, bald head, wife beater tee shirt, socks, sandals and tatooed eighteen year old bar girl in tow. "Ow much foe one monf then" he asked, "ere, them Jap birds look like a bit of awright" he added - I left, retiring to the sanctity of my pulpit on the 10th floor. I'm considering a machine gun nest on the balcony since I have a great view of the driveway and it would give me something to do in my spare time!

[Mousehound]

Having read through the thread I not a couple of recurring comments: that the place is full of old people and rock music is also prevelant. My retort is that we older citizens are prepared to show you conservative younger lot how to really live - if you only ask us. Secondly, it is true that the older generations like rock and blues rock, whereas the youngsters like a reprehensible dirge called "rap". Oh dear!