Emergency treatment plan runs into payment, bed-shortage problems
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Many patients have not been able to access the government's new plan to provide unlimited emergency medical treatment since the scheme was launched on April 1.
Some complain they were asked to pay a deposit for the treatment before being discharged from hospital.
Moreover, patient-beds were not available in many hospitals, according to National Health Security Office (NHSO)
NHSO has recently concluded a study of the government’s plan to provide unlimited emergency medical treatment since the plan started 21 days ago.
It found the plan has faced many problems in providing emergency treatment for patients.
Since the plan opened on April 1, 708 people had received emergency treatment at the hospitals. Of this number, 210 were suffering from road accident injuries, followed by heart disease with 113 cases, neurological-symptoms with 86 cases, and respiratory disease with 68 cases.
NHSO reported that 497 patients were taken to hospital by their relatives, 34 were carried by rescue vehicles, and 51 cases went in ambulances.
“Most people had called to the hotline and worried about payment for the emergency treatment. They worried they would be charged for the services,” NHSO’s deputy secretary general Dr Weerawat Pankrut said.
NHSO has reported that hospitals asked some patients to pay for their emergency treatment. Some could not transfer to receive medication at other hospitals as there were not enough patient beds.
Private Hospital Association’s president Dr Chalerm Hanpanich said the association had made a recommendation to the Public Health Ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Paijit Warachit to improve emergency health care services.
The association wanted the ministry to ask patients to express their willingness to stay at private |hospitals or move to their original hospitals after they had begun to recover.
