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This report comprises 4 pages. Hopefully you can benefit by scanning them all.
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8) A lack of qualified nurses?
From reading the section above, you realize we got to know some nurses. We noted that some of them change jobs quite often, and do odd nursing jobs during weekends and at night. Some also got good salaries for standard work in hospital. One young nurse told us she made 35,000 baht a month, working 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. Compared to other salaries in Thailand, this is quite high (and was supplemented by nighttime and weekend jobs at around 1,500 baht a day).
When we talked about this, it became apparent that nursing staff seems to have the edge when looking for employment. Of course, medical services and hospitals are booming in Bangkok. Surely, more and more nursed are required, and there is high demand of trained qualified personnel. As a result, nurses have the option of looking around, going to different hospitals, and select the ones that offer best salaries and benefits.
There seems to be a minor controversy regarding certain training courses on caring for the young and elderly. The Professional Nursing and Midwifery Act prohibits persons who are not professional nurses with nursing certificates, from treating patients or injured persons at hospitals. However, apparently both state and private hospitals are allowed to employ persons trained to care for elderly and young people, to provide assistance.
Since the uniforms used by such trained people are often hardly distinguishable from the uniforms used by fully trained nurses, there is the possibility of generating confusion for patients admitted to hospitals. Apparently there are quite a few institutions offering short-term training courses to 'help' in hospitals, and possibly from what we understand (in newspaper reports) they may advertise their courses inappropriately.
9) What about medical reports?
Since we have stayed for more than 10 years in Bangkok and are middle-aged, as most people we have had some minor medical problems and even some small surgeries. We have also paid attention to comments of other long-term residents in Thailand.
We have most experience in this regard with Bumrungrad Hospital, but also with other hospitals like BNH Hospital and Bangkok Christian Hospital.
What is somewhat lacking is the easy availability of medical reports. When going to Bumrungrad Hospital you will notice the physician or surgeon will have your data on file on the computer monitor in front of him (her). Handwritten notes (actually we should pay more attention, not sure whether the doctors there still write anything down), laboratory results, X-rays etc. seem to be stored, scanned and added to the data by some other means.
As far as we recall, this level of computerization is not at all present at BNH Hospital (may be coming there though) and certainly not at Bangkok Christian Hospital.
But what about properly written overall reports on your health condition. Such reports are much more common in Europe. Where there is a proper primary health system, medical specialists will give their opinions in writing for referring primary physicians' benefit. That way, when you visit different hospitals for your medical problems, the primary physician at least will have a total overview of your condition.
One of our friends who had (he passed away now) a serious neurological condition, and was travelling yearly between Thailand and Denmark, would (on his request) only get the shortest medical note, written hastily on site, for his Danish physician to read.
Adequate reporting is even most valuable for patients themselves. After all, you could take them with you to other health providers, instead of having to recall your medical history in non-medical terms for the physician you consult. After all, after a few years, will you still recall the exact location of your gastric (or was it duodenal?) ulcer. If you had successful surgery on your knee without scars or residual problems, will you still know whether it was your right or left knee after 10 years?
Most disturbingly, keeping your data on file at one hospital, without giving you a copy of the data, is maybe some kind of technique to keep you as a customer there, not wanting to go looking for help at other locations. And what if you relocate to your 'home' country? Would it not be nice to have a proper record of your condition for the coming years?
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Related articles about health issues : Hospitals in Bangkok | Dental Services | Eye Clinics | Pharmacies | Shortcomings of Thai Healthcare (this page)
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