Best Hospital Ubon? With good Heart Department ,Thanks

[nbunter]

Interested in information about Hospitals in Ubon,with good Heart Department who could treat AF if the problem occurs again Thanks in Advance

[Nice Boyd]

Head to Khon Kaen


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[SantiSuk]

True that (by reference to other comments on ThaiV over recent years) that KK has a specialist heart department and is probably the best place to go if you have something unusual or you are unhappy with the quality of what you can get locally. I suspect that with something reasonably commonplace like AF what you need is a local heart specialist that can react immediately if you run into problems.

 

In my experience of Ubon, having a lung condition which requires recurring advice with the possibility of a short hospital stay intervention, I offer the following comments:

 

• I suspect that there are no heart departments as such (ie there are no lung departments) in Ubon's private hospitals; there may be a collection of heart doctors who work together in the large regional public hospital Sapphasit (Saphasitiprasong or something similar to give it its full name). That does not necessarily mean they work together in a consultative team approach - like what you might get in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and maybe KK.
   
• What you get in Ubon is a collection of doctors/surgeons the more senior of whom have reasonably good experience and the most user-friendly (to Thais) tend to be hugely busy. They will mostly all work at said Sapphasit public hospital but also have a private clinic for consultations and will probably also do a surgery once or twice a week at more than one of the private hospitals (we are talking UbonRak, Rajavej and Sapphasit International Hospital (private offshoot of the big public hospital) and maybe the military hospital in Warin.
   
• Once you have identified a specialist that you are comfortable with you can choose where to see them. At the public hospital will be super cheap but you have to be sure that you are getting the guy you want and you may not be able to make a specific appointment time so that you could be spending a lot of waiting time with a load of other people some of whom may have infections. At their private clinic may be surprisingly cheap also but may also not be the type of private clinic you desire. My lung specialist has a private clinic where he charges (a falang) about 150 baht for a 10 minute consultation but the place is overrun with people and he rushes through everybody - I get the impression he is very social minded and does almost pro-bono work at high speed for local Thais who can't afford much. Fair play to him I say but it can be quite frustrating getting attention so I tend to see him at UbonRak where things are a bit more genteel and where there are facilities for tests (at his private clinic people are sent off to other locations including the public hospital for scans, bloods etc). The private hospitals will give you an appointment and will not be hugely expensive for doctor time but they will try to get it back on any drugs. If you need regular drugs best to decline the private hospital offer and buy outside if you know what you need. I use the big Chinese-Thai pharma on the junction of Luang Alley and Prommarat Road in the old 'Chinese town', but stock up on the expensive stuff in an even cheaper large Bangkok pharmacy. Illustratively and I find prices work out at a relativity of about 100/60/50 at an Ubon private hospital/Luang Alley/Bangkok.
   
• So how to find the right specialist is the key. Hopefully others will come on with a recommendation. If not you may have to hoof round a bit like I did. Having drawn a dud at one hospital I eventually walked into Sapphasit Private Hospital and asked if they had any lung specialist consultants. I chose Sapphasit private hospital because, although newly set up it works hand in hand with the large public hospital and I figured there's a fair chance it must have access to the public hospital's best guys. They said yes and I booked an appointment to discuss my condition with said specialist with a view to establishing a longer relationship for the future. Turned out she described herself as a 'lung and heart specialist' - not the best start! She was OKish, but I was really pi$$ed off when only a couple of months later the need arose for me to urgently check into that hospital to treat high fever pneumonia. The hospital ignored the relationship I though we had set up and treated me through general medics who knew nothing of my particular lung condition. My specialist never showed up and I did not hold back communicating my displeasure. She was apologetic and said for the futire she would put me in touch with the most senior pulmonologist that she worked with in the Sapphasit public hospital. So eventually I have found what I set out to. Incidentally this technique also worked well when I had a problem with hip/groin joint pain - I asked Sapphasit International to set up an appointment with a good orthopaedic consultant. They did and she is also from Sapphasit Public Hospital and she impressed me greatly and solved my issue - my wife now sees her at her private clinic.
   
• If you see someone you like there is no need to be at all sensitive about asking them where else they work and do they have a private clinic (as long as no-one from the private hospital is sitting in!)
  
   

Sorry this is so long winded - should have waited for someone to come on with a short answer of "here is the guy/lady you need to see"! Perhaps though it gives you a bit of insight into the way things seem to work in Ubon when looking for specialists. Forgot to add that Warin Military Hospital gets a lot of recommendations on here for cheapness linked with professionalism. Maybe you could walk in there and ask about seeing a heart specialist. Shop around and good luck.

 

PS My condition is slightly more complicated than run of the mill lung stuff so I also have a relationship with the lung department of one of Bangkok's big hospitals and also get annually monitored by a world class lung team at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge UK. Turns out the guy I see in Bangkok trained my Ubon pulmonologist (and most other Thai pulmonolgists) on the finer points of bronciectasis a couple of decades ago. Its overkill but I do travel about; sounds like I'm a walking basket case don't it? Actually I'm quite fit for my age 95% of the time - make that half my age!
 

[Maybe idiosyncratic experience, so happy to hear experience to the contrary from others]

Edited November 28, 2016 by SantiSuk

[KhunBENQ]

The experts know, but I had to search what "AF" means.

Atrial fibrillation,  abnormal heart rhythm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation

[happynthailand]

Best Heart Hospital in the area is in KK

 

[nbunter]

How long is the trip to KK, and the best way to get there from Ubon,Thanks for the great information so far

[KhunBENQ]

Well it's quite a long trip.

~300 km, 186 miles

On the road about 5 hours.

 

The KK heart center HAS a good reputation, but unfortunately Ubon is in the south-east corner of Isan while KK is in the center.

Getting from Ubon to Bangkok by flight is easier.

(no direct flights Ubon to KK)

Are you insured for all classes of private hospitals?

 

[nbunter]

yes full insurance

 

[lopburi3]

Bangkok Hospital in Bangkok has had a dedicated facility for heart for many years and most consider it very good.  I currently use a full time doctor at that facility as primary care physician.   Dr. Panya at the Arrhythmia Clinic (although I do not have arrhythmia myself he is trained in internal medicine as well as cardio).

Edited December 4, 2016 by lopburi3