Little difference in death rates of health scheme users: NHSO

The NHSO also stressed there had been a transparent allocation of funds, medicines and medical equipment to hospitals, and UC patients received quality healthcare.

In response of the allegation that UC beneficiaries have a higher death rate than CSMBS beneficiaries, Dr Athaporn Limpanyalerd, a NHSO spokesman, said research revealed that the death rate ratio after first being admitting to hospital due to a stroke or ST segment elevation myocardial infarction among UC and CSMBS patients between 2009 to 2012 showed a steady decrease in the death rate in both beneficiary groups.

Athaporn said the death rate for UC patients compared to CSMBS patients was only a little higher.

He cited the findings of research conducted by Supol Limwattananon. 

“We admit that the UC patients actually had a higher death rate compared to CSMBS patients, but there is an explanation for this,” he said. “The statistics show that 24.3 per cent of UC beneficiaries were very poor while only 11.6 per cent were very rich compared to 51 per cent of CSMBS beneficiaries being very rich and only 5.9 very poor.

“For strokes, the rich patients who suffer paralysis will have a greater chance to receive better care such as a privately hired nurse, which will increase their survival rate, but most poorer patients do not have that chance.” 

In regard to the allegation that UC patients had limited access to medicines and that medical equipment for them was poor quality, he said the NHSO offered a large range from the National List of Medicines (NLEM) for all UC beneficiaries at a cheap cost. 

“UC beneficiaries can access up to 30,000 medicines on the NLEM list freely according to the doctor’s decision. But for rare or expensive medicines, NHSO also offers another 110 medicines. For example, the expensive medicines for cancer, Aids, vaccines and antidotes to cover the needs of the medicines which are not on the NLEM list,” he explained.

 

‘We select quality products’ 

He said the drugs were bought by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation at wholesale prices directly through drug companies, while medical equipment such as a stent for heart disease patients or the peritoneal dialysis solution were also bought from the manufacturers at an inexpensive price.

“Even though we buy these medical products very cheap, we carefully select quality products. For example, before we order stents we let the experts from the Heart Association inspect the quality of the product first. Therefore, we ensure the quality of the equipment as well as the affordable price,” he said.