Network protests over expensive medical services
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THE THAI Medical Error Network demonstrated yesterday at Government House and Parliament over what it claims are overpriced medical services at private hospitals, while the National Reform Council (NRC) agreed to hold a discussion on the issue.
Preeyanan Lorsermvattana, the network’s president, said the main aim of the demonstration was to promote the creation of a central committee consisting of every related agency to tackle an issue she said “cheated” people.
Preeyanan said the network would hand over a petition with 33,000 signatures to the Public Health Minister and would send a letter to the Consumer Protection and Public Health Committee.
She said the central committee should have three main duties: designate the formal price for all medical care, receive complaints from the patients and investigate claims of overpriced medical care.
“The private hospitals have already acknowledged our plea but they ignored it by saying ‘if you can’t afford our service, go to a public hospital’,” she said.
Pornphan Boonyaratphan, chairwoman of the NRC’s committee on public health reform, said she would receive the letter from the network today and would invite every stakeholder to speak in order to find a solution to the problem.
“The related agencies such as the Private Hospital Association and the National Health Security Office [NHSO] will be summoned to discuss the facts and make a decision together to set up a central committee to take care of this issue,” Pornphan said.
However, she said having private hospital fees as cheap as public hospital fees would be very difficult to achieve as public hospitals were supported financially by the state through the universal healthcare scheme.
“The NHSO should take care of this issue as it is their responsibility to ensure the people’s right to receive medical attention. So they should work with private hospitals to negotiate on emergency-service costs,” she said.
Dr Ittaporn Kanacharoen, Medical Council of Thailand deputy secretary-general, said the cost of healthcare services differed according to medical staff salaries, medical equipment costs and other service fees.
“To control the healthcare fees, we have to look at different types of fees, which in reality may be more complicated than this,” Ittaporn said.
“About the accusation that doctors may order unnecessary medicine or use more equipment than what is needed, resulting in an expensive bill, the patient can send their complaint directly to the Medical Council of Thailand,” he added.
