Strange experience at a well known Chiang Mai hospital

[fang37]

I went to McCormick to confirm that the broken leg was healing as it should.

Excellent doctor, X-ray & Ultrasound - B2100.

[Rob13]

US law prohibits holding a passport for collateral, Thailand, who knows,but if you're going to say no you probably ought to have something else to put up. Most private hospitals are businesses not charities and foreigners are high risk when it comes to credit. I've put up my PP a few times, I felt safer with that than handing over a credit card that they can ring a bunch of charges on before I can check. Plus you could always report your PP lost to the embassy.

[Sheryl]

You can always dispute a credit card charge through your bank. I had to do this recently when a private hospital refused to refund an upfront payment they had demanded even though my insurance had paid the bill in full directly to them. Succeeded.

[northernjohn]

Medical skills range widely at Ram. Experience in dermatology, opthamology, plastic surgery (leg) and cancerous tumor surgical removal. My ER experience and diagnosis of leg infection was disastrous. Mis-diagnosis of my leg cost me major surgery and 4 months in hospital following complicated skin graft (plastic surgery). Good doctor - inept doctor - Russian roulette … beware.

For some reason many farongs think the more expensive the hospital the better it is. They never stop to check the quality of the doctor. A friend of mine is like that. He was showing blood in his urine. He went to the Bangkok hospital and had all kinds of tests it was spread out over 3 days. They could find nothing and he is still showing blood. He then went to them for a Dermatologist who examined him said he needed a couple of spots frozen but they didn't have the gas to do it there. Then they charged him 600 baht.

When you go into a hospital it is a crap shoot unless you know the name of the doctor you want to see.

In a real emergency that is different get them to the hospital as quick as you can.