Rajavithi Hospital: Diagnostic Treatment There?

[NanLaew]

I have a friend who has had lingering symptoms of a cold with sleeplessness and lack of appetite for over a month now. They've seen a few local doctors at clinics and even tried pharmacists advice but the meds bought don't work, just relieve some symptoms. They have been told that Rajavithi is a good diagnostic hospital in Bangkok and not over expensive. They do not have insurance.

Does anyone have any in-patient experience at this hospital?

Thanks,

NL

[Sheryl]

Did you mean to say out-patient? As this hardly sounds like something that would need inpatient care.

Rajavithi is an excellent tertiary level government hospital with p[articular expertise in cardiac surgery and some other things. However it gets many thousands of outpatients a day, the red tape is formidable, and for "simple" problems you may only be seen by an intern or even a medical student. (Even those with problems obviously requiring specialist care, have to run a gauntlet of medical student/intern etc before ever reaching a specialist).

I would personaly suggest consulting Dr. Songlat at St Louis Hospital, it will not be that expensive and he is very good (US trained ENT). He is there Sunday :: 09:00 AM - 04:00 PM and Thursday :: 03:30 PM - 07:30 PM

Re the sleeplessness and lack of appetite, I suspect these may be secondary to the medications you friend has been given for the cold symptoms, many of them have these side effects. A good ENT will be able to suggest better alternatives after a physical examination.

[NanLaew]

Sorry Sheryl, I meant out-patient.

Thanks for the information and the recommendation. I will pass that to my friend but maybe they have already visited Rajavithi so we will see. Since it's a government hospital, they should not be worried too much about getting hit with a big bill but of course, that all depends on what the diagnosis or rather, what the treatment is.

[Sheryl]

As mentioned, the risk with a busy government hospital and a non-urgent complaint is that they might only be seen by a medical student or intern and fobbed off with the same meds already given. As that is the usual first approach. If they keep going back complaining of no relief might eventual make it to a specialist but might take many visits to acheive that.

Do mention to your friend the likelihood that the problems with sleep and appetite are side effects on decongestant medication given.

[Mobi]

I do have some experience of Rajavithi both as an outpatient and an inpatient, as it was there that I had open heart surgery and had a new aortic valve inserted in my heart.

Overall, I have nothing but praise for the treatment, professionalism and care I received at the hospital, but having said that, as Sheryl says, outpatient visits can be a bit of a nightmare, until you get onto the specialists list and they understand that you have a serious problem.

Don't even attempt to attend there as an outpatient without a Thai to guide you through the process.

Certainly outpatient charges are minimal, and even inpatient charges, with a VIP room are less than a third of that charged by the major private hospitals. (My heart op was less than 300K, whereas Bumrungrad would have charged well over a million)

Even at today's rates, I have found that specialists in the private hospitals are comparatively cheap for outpatient consults. I have had a number of consultations with specialist at Bangkok Pattaya and the total charges rarely exceed 1000 Baht, which is not at all unreasonable and much less than you would pay in the west for a similar private consultation. It's only when you become an inpatient that the costs start to mount.

I agree with Sheryl, your friend might be better off seeing a specialist in the private sector for this kind of problem. As an example, I was having a lot of bronchyl- type chest problems that had caused me no end of discomfort and when I went to see a specialist at BPH he immediately identified it as a nasal alergy which was flowing down in to my chest. I had never heard of such a thing before but he was dead right. All I needed was a daily saline clean of my nostrils and I have been fine ever since. I can't imagine Rajavithi diagnosing this if I went there as an out paitient.