Best private hospital for baby

[sup3r1or]

Hello Everyone,

I live in Chiang Rai and when I was in Bangkok we used BNH their expertise and doctors were superb. In Chiang Rai healthcare is really bad when it comes to babies even in the private hospitals here.

I need to know which hospital in chiang mai provides the best care and specialists for babies. My 1 year old daughter is ill right now and the medicine she got here doesnt help. Will go to CM tomorrow and would like to know your opinion.

Where can we get good doctors? I tried one big hospital by university there once and it was really bad. That was gov one.

[Greenside]

Sorry to hear your daughter is ill and hope it turns out to be nothing serious.

We only have experience at Rajavej Hospital (053 801 999) and others may post to suggest Ram or Sriphat but so far our 18 month old son has received good care from doctors that inspire confidence and visits are always made easier with the help of the foreign liaison staff who will be on hand for as much (or as little) of the process as you want. Ask for Natasha at the front desk but if she's not available all the people I have dealt with there have been great.

Good luck with your trip and best wishes for your daughter's speedy recovery.

[mav000]

Highly recommend RAM. In fact, would recommend them for any family member. I just finished spending 3 days in hospital, excellent service at a very reasonable price. All doctors I came in contact with spoke excellent English.

Best of luck.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

RAM is the most expensive hospital in CM, up to 15x the cost of the other hospitals.

I'm also not convinced the level of health care they provide is all that good.

[arleo]

I wouldn't recommend RAM to anyone. My 1 year old son stayed there one night couple of months ago. Had to pay 13000bht to see that he had only flu... If you go there, at least ask to get a detailed bill - otherwise they will charge for some extra items they had not used. Medicine prices are about 3 times more expensive than other hospitals, some medicine even 50 times (they charged 1300bht for medicine that usually costs ~30bht)

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I like the pediatrics section at Lanna Hostpital.

[PoodMaiDai]

How are the price at Lanna compared to Ram?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Better. And we found the doctors more willing to play ball in reducing costs. (By advising medications that are easily obtained low cost at a pharmacy, rather than selling it.) Quite often we come out of there just paying the 300 baht doctor's fee. For things like vaccinations it helps to shop around a bit, those costs may not be terribly different between Lanna and Ram.

[LawrenceChee]

Does the OP has insurance ? If so then costs will not be a consideration

Our son is in RAM for the last 2 days and I like the care there although I remember my own bill for that food poisoning episode and I agree without insurance it was expensive at 21k for one night !

He is covered under insurance for himself here so we are not worried abt the costs

[chiang mai]

RAM is the most expensive hospital in CM, up to 15x the cost of the other hospitals.

I'm also not convinced the level of health care they provide is all that good.

I spent a fair amount of time and effort assessing the different hospitals for the pinned list of medical staff in the CM forum, plus over the years I've had various reasons to seek medical help at them, my take is this:

Sriphat and RAM are the only two hospitals where CMU teaching staff practice although on occaision they are called in to cases in Mahraj and Suan Dok, they are not found to practise at McCormick, Lanna and Rajavej other than on an ad-hoc visit basis. It therefore follows that the highest quality of medical care is found at RAM and Sriphat and this is borne out by TV posters recomendations for the inclusion of medical specialists onto the list as they recomend specialists and we have noted where they can be found.

I'm not going to try and compare costs across all the hospitals in CM since that would be like comparing apples and oranges, some of the hospitals only provide certain services whilst Sriphat for example does almost everything. In addition, a small hospital may well provide good value for money for dealing with simple things such as lacerations and the flu whilst the cost to fix those things at say RAM is higher because that level of medicine is not their main focus. Another example might include PCI (coronary stenting) which is available at R AM but not at Rajavej or Lanna (there's no cath lab), ditto diaiasys, cancer treatment and transplant surgery.

One thing is certain and that is that all the hospitals add a substantial premium to the cost of any medication required by the patient but that can largely be avoided at all hospitals by buying the medication at outside pharmacies.

So that brings us down to the cost of common midrange (not trivial and not complex and highly specialised) procedures that are available at all hospitals and I would guess child birth must be one of those. It's almost certain that Maharaj and Suan Doc will be the cheapest followed by Lanna and then Sriphat and RAM I would guess, as a result the remaining determining factors in any decision of where to go will include: (1) what creature comforts does the patient want from the hospital and (2) what other expert services are at hand if something goes wrong, given that last point I suspect that only RAM and Sriphat are optimal whereas the comfort issues are down to individual choice.

[bluweyze]

I like the pediatrics section at Lanna Hostpital.

Me too. I take our children there by choice

[Thailand]

The boss of Klaimor Hospital specializes in kids and seems to be the place chosen by Thai's for gynacological and child care and he is very much hands on.

Call 053200002 to make an appointment to see Dr. Siam, don't settle for anyone else.

Anyway, best wishes for getting the little one back to normal.

[elektrified]

The OP didn't really say what he/she specifically needed. All he/she said was they were looking for "...the best care and specialists for babies." Is there a major problem that would require a specialist?

If you are only looking for routine care, check ups, vaccinations, etc., then any of the suggestions above would be suitable. Like has been said, it is up to you to choose the level of comfort you want and then pay accordingly. If there is a specific problem and you want to go straight to a specialist, our experience is that the specialists are to be found around Sriphat/Suan Dok. If you go to RAM, Lanna, McCormick, etc. and it is determined you need a specialist then almost 95% they will be called in from Sriphat/Suan Dok or from Nakhornping (which in itself is a terrible place but has some good doctors - especially surgeons, who work there and elsewhere) and you will have to return at a time and date when they make the scheduled appointments at the hospital you have chosen.

The best thing is to first find a pediatrician you like and who has good communication and start there. It could be at at private clinic or at a hospital. It would be a plus if they are associated with CMU.

[elektrified]

Does the OP has insurance ? If so then costs will not be a consideration

Our son is in RAM for the last 2 days and I like the care there although I remember my own bill for that food poisoning episode and I agree without insurance it was expensive at 21k for one night !

He is covered under insurance for himself here so we are not worried abt the costs

Very few people, (Thai and farang) have OP insurance. Most have IP insurance only. To be covered under the IP insurance policy, child must have a fever with a temperature of 39+, or a serious injury to qualify for paid admission or the insurance company can reject the claim. The admission staff at the hospital know exactly what the criteria must be.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

RAM is the most expensive hospital in CM, up to 15x the cost of the other hospitals.

I'm also not convinced the level of health care they provide is all that good.

I spent a fair amount of time and effort assessing the different hospitals for the pinned list of medical staff in the CM forum, plus over the years I've had various reasons to seek medical help at them, my take is this:

One thing is certain and that is that all the hospitals add a substantial premium to the cost of any medication required by the patient but that can largely be avoided at all hospitals by buying the medication at outside pharmacies.

It's almost impossible for a white foreigner to assess the costs for a Thai child in a private hospital.

Medication gouging by hospitals appears to be another hospital/foreigner problem.

(My last 5 day course of anti-biotics provided by a Thai hospital was 35bht)

If the mother is Thai and the child is Thai, often best for the foreigner not to show his face.

CM RAM certainly charges foreigner prices to anyone who has a foreigner surname or foreigner in tow.

Just to point out vaccinations and normal routine health care are totally free for Thai children.

[chiang mai]

Sorry OP, in re-reading your post I realise I missed out one piece:

You said you went to a local hospital near the university and it was bad. If it was a a very large hospital it was either Suan Dok or Maharaj which is the Provincial Hospital, Sriphat is the semi private hospital that is associated with CMU, (the medical teaching centre) and is located near the entrance to Mahraj, it's a 13 storey building located on the road which is at the 9 oçlock position on the moat.

[Chicken George]

The Thai hospital in Chiang Rai has the best baby Doctor perhaps in the north of Thailand.. Well for surgery anyways. I know you are asking about medicine but keep this in mind. He can operate on new borns . Able to put organs back inside body when born with them outside. The Scriberin could do nothing for our newborn and they recommend us to go there. Where we saw him. He spotted that the unbilical cord was still in the belly button and did an imediate on the spot operation to remove and clean. He could uave got an infection and fied. The hospital wete able to do a Barium mill and x ray which no othet hodpital can do here. The durgeon only works there and no where else . He has no clinic and is as far as I can see totally dedicated to his kob. Thank God we went to see him. My son did not have an op as he was able to determine the problem. Partial Hirsprung desease . Good luck in Chiang Mai

[elektrified]

RAM is the most expensive hospital in CM, up to 15x the cost of the other hospitals.

I'm also not convinced the level of health care they provide is all that good.

I spent a fair amount of time and effort assessing the different hospitals for the pinned list of medical staff in the CM forum, plus over the years I've had various reasons to seek medical help at them, my take is this:

One thing is certain and that is that all the hospitals add a substantial premium to the cost of any medication required by the patient but that can largely be avoided at all hospitals by buying the medication at outside pharmacies.

It's almost impossible for a white foreigner to assess the costs for a Thai child in a private hospital.

Medication gouging by hospitals appears to be another hospital/foreigner problem.

(My last 5 day course of anti-biotics provided by a Thai hospital was 35bht)

If the mother is Thai and the child is Thai, often best for the foreigner not to show his face.

CM RAM certainly charges foreigner prices to anyone who has a foreigner surname or foreigner in tow.

Just to point out vaccinations and normal routine health care are totally free for Thai children.

I don't know where you get a lot of your information but some of it is not correct. Thais are also gouged for medication at the hospitals, not only foreigners. I don't believe C.M. Ram charges more for foreigners than they do Thais. Some of my Thai friends love C.M. Ram and will only go there. I have seen some of their bills that they showed me. They were the same prices as I have seen for foreigners.

Although some vaccinations are covered under the Thai health system (only the most basic ones), they are not all covered. Often the vaccines offered by the government are made in the poorest quality factories in Thailand where the only customer is government hospitals in Thailand. Do you have any children? I suspect not. Even the nurses working in government hospitals won't let their own children be vaccinated with these cheap brands. Yes brands do make a difference especially with vaccines.

[chiang mai]

RAM is the most expensive hospital in CM, up to 15x the cost of the other hospitals.

I'm also not convinced the level of health care they provide is all that good.

I spent a fair amount of time and effort assessing the different hospitals for the pinned list of medical staff in the CM forum, plus over the years I've had various reasons to seek medical help at them, my take is this:

One thing is certain and that is that all the hospitals add a substantial premium to the cost of any medication required by the patient but that can largely be avoided at all hospitals by buying the medication at outside pharmacies.

It's almost impossible for a white foreigner to assess the costs for a Thai child in a private hospital.

Medication gouging by hospitals appears to be another hospital/foreigner problem.

(My last 5 day course of anti-biotics provided by a Thai hospital was 35bht)

If the mother is Thai and the child is Thai, often best for the foreigner not to show his face.

CM RAM certainly charges foreigner prices to anyone who has a foreigner surname or foreigner in tow.

Just to point out vaccinations and normal routine health care are totally free for Thai children.

I don't know where you get a lot of your information but some of it is not correct. Thais are also gouged for medication at the hospitals, not only foreigners. I don't believe C.M. Ram charges more for foreigners than they do Thais. Some of my Thai friends love C.M. Ram and will only go there. I have seen some of their bills that they showed me. They were the same prices as I have seen for foreigners.

Although some vaccinations are covered under the Thai health system (only the most basic ones), they are not all covered. Often the vaccines offered by the government are made in the poorest quality factories in Thailand where the only customer is government hospitals in Thailand. Do you have any children? I suspect not. Even the nurses working in government hospitals won't let their own children be vaccinated with these cheap brands. Yes brands do make a difference especially with vaccines.

I agree, everyone gets overcharged for meds, Thai's and farangs alike.

I also have Thai friends who use RAM and we exchange notes on pricing there and I've yet to see any evidence that farangs are charged more than Thai's.

But there again, this is a popular bar stool myth amongst many farangs so perhaps we shouldn't spoil it with reality.