About 600 medical doctors resigned from public hospitals last year

Fear of being sued by patients for medical errors forced about 600 doctors to resign from public hospitals last year.

Public Health permanent-secretary Prach Boonyawongwiroj (ปราชญ์ บุณยวงศ์วิโรจน์) said a lot of doctors have been under stress after several lawsuits were brought against a number of physicians for alleged medical mistreatment by patients or their families.

Dr. Prach said 600 doctors had already resigned and another 300 wanted to move to private hospitals, particularly those working in rural areas. He said the Public Health Ministry is to promote the production of medical graduates who come from rural communities and send them back to work in their hometowns to solve the shortage of doctors.

Dr. Prach said he can confirm that public medical services meet standard and no doctors ever want mistakes in their treatments.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 08 July 2006

Dr. Prach said he can confirm that public medical services meet standard ...............

What standard?

IME the doctors in the public hospitals are often very junoir and unsupervised.

Especially in the Emergency room.

The word incompetent comes to mind but that may be unfair.

1. Failing to diagnose a ruptured artery. Even the most basic First Aid training says stop the bleeding, before you worry about CAT scans and other expensive tools. The kid almost bleed to death.

2. Failure to diagnose a ruptured speen. A more senior doctor did pick it up after several hours,and the patient was rushed to surgery

3. An HIV patient is admitted to hospital with a headache. 4 hours later she is dead.

Cause of death AIDS??? Much more likely to be a stroke???

The body was place in a bag with indecent haste and there was no autopsy.

These are my experiences of the Thai public hospitals.

"These are my experiences of the Thai public hospitals."

Dang - you have more lives than a cat.

Overall, I've had excellent care in Thailand, however, I am only going to private hospitals. In general, they are good value for money.

What I have seen of the public health hospitals is not as good.

If Dr.'s want to prevent being sued, it's important that they do their job well. It's the best safeguard of all.