Hospitals step up to treat patients turned away by Mahaesak

People who are entitled to receive free medical care from the scheme via Mahaesak Hospital will be able to do so only until September 30. 
From October 1, they will have to seek medical services under the scheme from another medical facility assigned to them by the National Health Security Office (NHSO). 
Prof Dr Somsri Pausawasdi, who chairs a panel overseeing the scheme in Bangkok, said yesterday that the Rajavithi, Chulalongkorn, Bhumibol Adulyadej and Vajira hospitals were among the medical facilities that would help take over the patients. 
The Klang, Charoenkrung Pracharak, Sirindhorn Hospital, Lerdsin, Nopparatrajathanee, Phramongkutklao and Mongkutwat-tana hospitals had also agreed to help, as had several community clinics. 
“In case the newly assigned medical facility proves inconvenient, people participating in the universal healthcare scheme can still ask for reassignment,” Somsri added. 
According to Somsri, the Mahaesak Hospital has a new set of executives and major shareholders who have come up with a plan to revamp it, and that plan would mean an end to the provision of services to universal healthcare scheme patients. 
Under the rules, hospitals can withdraw from the universal healthcare scheme if they inform the NHSO at least three months in advance. 
Somsri said no other hospitals had to date expressed an intention to pull out. However, she admitted that some facilities, such as the Phaetpanya, Vibharam Pakkred and Bangna 1 hospitals, had sought to reduce the number of universal-healthcare-scheme members they are assigned. 
The NHSO mainly pays hospitals participating in scheme based on a per-head flat rate. Only in the event of a complicated illness can these hospitals claim extra payments. 
Somsri admitted that more hospitals might step out of the universal healthcare scheme in the future. 
“If private hospitals feel it’s not worth joining the scheme, they will pull out. Their withdrawal will mean state hospitals will have to shoulder additional burden, so we have to address this problem,” she said. She pointed out that the social-security scheme also experienced this problem. Next year, three hospitals will withdraw from the social-security scheme, which offers most medical services to its insured members for free.