Health Commission casts doubt on medical-hub policy

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Health Commission casts doubt on medical-hub policy
By Duangkamon Sajirawattanakul
The Nation 2010-12-09


A Board of Investment offer of tax privileges to support plans to make Thailand a medical hub may contravene the health charter, National Health Commission secretary-general Dr Ampol Jindawattana told a news conference yesterday.

Ampol also claimed the BOI offer could adversely affect health services for Thais.

According to the National Health Act, the state should not grant support or tax privileges to investors providing commercial health services.

"Although the charter does not prescribe any punishment, it should be socially binding because health services are a humanitarian cause," Ampol said.

He said many of the health services in Thailand were already profit-oriented. Government agencies should not officially encourage profit-oriented health businesses, he said.

Ampol said he would raise the issue at the Health Commission meeting on December 24, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

"The medical-hub issue will prove whether the government will work for everyone or just for some," Ampol said.

Nonglak Pagaiya, assistant secretary to the academic panel on the medical-hub policy, said many people supported the policy because they believed it would generate more revenue for the country.

"But in fact, foreigners coming to Thailand for health services account for just 27 per cent of the total number of foreign patients in Thailand," Nonglak said.

Most foreign patients are immigrants or tourists who happen to fall ill while in Thailand, she said.

Nonglak also expressed concern that Thais would shoulder higher medical costs if private facilities used higher pay to lure medical workers from government services.

The medical-hub policy is among eight issues to be highlighted at the annual National Health Assembly meeting, taking place from December 15-17.

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Thailand is the same as the UK,it has a two-tier Health system.You will find that most countries have both public and privately funded health care, but the degree to which this creates a quality differential depends on the way the two systems are managed, funded, and regulated. Some publicly funded universal health care systems deliver excellent service and the private system tends to be small and not highly differentiated. In other, typically poorer countries, the public health system is underfunded and over stretched, offering opportunities for private companies to deliver better quality, more time, albeit more expensive health care coverage.
Luckily for me I have never had to be omitted to Hospital here but have used the Local Government run Hospital and although you have to wait your turn I have always found the service OK. A friend of mine has Diabetes mellitus type 2 and went to the Private run Hospital and got seen and was given 1 months prescription of tablets and it cost him over 1000 baht.The next month he went to a local Government hospital and got the same treatment for a few 100 baht.
As for Medical Tourism from what I have seen of the Hospitals in BKK I would rate them as some of the best in the world .
http://retireinthailand.allcoolstuff.info/in-comparison-to-the-usa-how-would-bangkok-hospitals-and-doctors-rate/
If you was on a waiting list back home and wanted to jump the queue by going private I would say Thailand was as good as any. When I lived in Koh Samui I had a few friends that came out here to have dental treatment and the savings paid for their holiday.
At the same time it does seem that lot's of these private run hospitals are head-hunting the best of the Government trained employees to line their pockets  but doesn't that happen everywhere you have a  two-tier Health system..??