FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Rural doctors want Council sec-gen back

Rural doctors want Council sec-gen back

THE RURAL Doctors Society is pushing for the reinstatement of Dr Sukit Tassanasunthornwong as the Medical Council’s secretary-general.

Sukit tendered his resignation on Thursday in the face of pressure from many doctors, whom the society describes as “commercial doctors”. The resignation will take effect from June 1.
The society yesterday urged Medical Council’s president Professor Dr Prasit Watanapa to again appoint Sukit as its secretary-general. 
Sukit had been facing intense pressure after he exercised his authority to withdraw the Medical Council’s defamation lawsuit against Thai Medical Error Network’s president Preeyanan Lorsermvattana even though she had not yet fully complied with the council’s conditions.
The Medical Council started the lawsuit in 2016 over several of Preeyanan’s comments. 
“They contain false information, such as claims that the Medical Council has organised training on how to write medical records to avoid medical-malpractice lawsuits or training on how medical specialists can help defend doctors,” Dr Chanesd Srisukho said late last month as he tried to nudge Prasit into firing Sukit. Chanesd and his group are unhappy that Sukit dropped the lawsuit against Preeyanan before she publicly apologised to the Medical Council – one of the key conditions. 
Sukit said he withdrew the complaint against Preeyanan because she had already agreed to write an apology to the Medical Council but Chanesd’s group has said the apology Preeyanan offered was not in line with the conditions set by the Medical Council’s resolution. 
“What Sukit has done is nothing short of betraying doctors in general,” Chanesd said. 
He said the Medical Council had not sued Preeyanan because it wanted to send her to jail. 
“But we want to prove which side is right,” he said. 
Preeyanan has refused to comment. In the eyes of the Rural Doctors Society, Sukit has made the right move and showed courage in resolving the prolonged conflict between the Medical Council and patients’ networks. 
“It’s a way to start a new, better chapter,” the society said yesterday. 
Signed by the society’s president, Dr Kriangsak Watcharanukulkiat, the statement said Prasit should restore Sukit as the Medical Council’s secretary-general to ensure there is room for good people in Thailand. 
 

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