Heart surgery in Thialand?

[Poppy39]

What is the best hospitals in a Thailand of a heart bypass surgery and aortic valve replacement surgery?

[Sheryl]

There are many hospitals which can do this, the issue is the choice of surgeon.

Cost is also an issue if you are uninsured. At a private hospital, either of these procedures alone will cost around 400,000- 500,000 baht. Private Hospitals with good cardiac teams include:

Bumrungrad

Phyathai 2

St Louis Hospital

Bangkok Hospital

Of the above, St Louis is the least expensive and i can recomment Dr. Dr. Kittichai there.

Government Hospitals are far less expensive - about 1/4 the cost. But lots of red tape initially, will take all day several;days in a row at least (maybe even more than a week) before you can get scheduled for surgery. First you have to register, then see a GP (actually a medical student), then get referred to the cartdiac specialist, then get Xray and EKG, then back again to the cardiac specialist, then a wait for echocardiogram etc etc. Once through all those hurdles, things go pretty well, and the quality of care is fine. Though only the doctors speak any English, and definitely need a Thia speaker along to navigate the system.

The best government hospitals for this are:

Rajawithi Hospital (near Victory Monument)

Chulalonghorn Hospital

Siriraj Hospital (which also has a private channel)

Central Chest Institute (Nonthaburi)

[Mobi]

I can reiterate Sheryl's excellent post.

I had an aortic valve replacement carried out at Rajavithi hospital by an excellent surgeon. The pre-op and ICU care was brilliant as was the in patient after care in the VIP wing, which costs extra but is still much cheaper than the private hospitals.

The registration etc is a bit of nightmare, as described by Sheryl, and you need to have a strong Thai, who won't take being pushed around, to get you through all the initial BS.

One thing that worked for me, is if you bring a doctor's report from another hospital that states your medical problems and the treatment required, you can avoid the need to be seen by another GP. However, there's no guarantees on this.

[rickb]

Just to update the costs listed above. I just returned from having caronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery at Rajavithi Hospital. I stayed in a "special" single room (well worth the additional cost), had an angiogram done and then the bypass surgery. I stayed a total of 3 days in the ICU and another 8 days in the special room (2 days before surgery and 6 days after being released from the ICU). My total cost was about 320,000. I would recommend this hospital to anyone needing this surgery. My doctor, Dr. Peenachanee (a female) is the head of the cardiac surgery unit and she speaks excellent English and explains everything. I really liked her bedside manner. The angiogram was done as an out patient in one day. I checked at Bumrungrat for the same surgery and was told a little more than 1 million baht and it depended on how many arteries had to be bypassed. That quote didn't include the angiogram.