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Home » News from Thailand » 'Health care in Thailand is among the best in the world'
'Health care in Thailand is among the best in the world'
According to the American magazine CEOWORLD, Thailand ranks sixth on the Healt Care Index, a list of 89 countries, which gives an indication of the quality of healthcare.
That is a special achievement because there are not many Asian countries that are in the top 10. South Korea (2nd place) and Japan (3rd place) are doing well and Taiwan is even number 1, the country scored 78,72 out of 100 points on the Health Care Index. In Venezuela, the health care situation is deplorable, the country is in last place with 33,42 points. Thailand received a score of 67,99.
Minister Anutin of Health is happy with the score, but according to him there is still a lot of work to be done.
The Healt Care Index is a statistical analysis of the overall quality of health care, based on medical infrastructure, competence of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel, costs, availability, access to quality medicines, and so on.
Source: Bangkok Post
What about the Netherlands (the country we live in).
Do you also have the link of the list, then we can make a comparison…
Ah found…https://ceoworld.biz/2019/08/05/revealed-countries-with-the-best-health-care-systems-2019/
Top 10 +1:
1 Taiwan
2 South Korea
3 Japan
4 Austria
5 Denmark
6Thailand
7 Spain
8 France
9 Belgie
10 Australia
11 Netherlands
Explanation:
” The Health Care Index is a statistical analysis of the overall quality of the health care system, including health care infrastructure; health care professionals (doctors, nursing staff, and other health workers) competencies; cost (USD paper capita); quality medicine availability, and government readiness. ”
I don't see the availability factor? As I wrote elsewhere, the Netherlands has more doctors per person than Thailand, a lot more. The availability of doctors also says quite a lot. You can have super good doctors, but can the common man also go there in time? And are the costs affordable for the common man? (I don't read whether the figure for costs is 'costs compared to other countries' or 'can a resident of that country afford the costs').
Doctors per capita (1000 people):
– Sweden: 54 doctors per 1000 inhabitants
– The Netherlands: 35 doctors per 1000 inhabitants
– Belgium: 33 doctors per 1000 inhabitants
– USA: 26 doctors per 1000 inhabitants
– Thailand: 8 doctors per 1000 inhabitants
https://www.who.int/gho/health_workforce/physicians_density/en/
A report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states that health-care access is unevenly distributed. In Bangkok and among the people with money, access is many times better than in the provinces and among those with less money:
One key remaining area of concern is the distribution of health services across
regions. Residents of Bangkok have much greater access to medical services, as measured
by the number of physicians and the number of medical appliances per person, then
residents of other regions of the country (Figure 2.6.4). By the same measure, poor people
in urban areas have less access to medical services than better-off urban residents. Axis a
result, poor people are more vulnerable to receiving inadequate medical care.
https://www.oecd.org/dev/asia-pacific/Thailand.pdf
So I get the impression that if you have a good wallet and can fly around the world, you can indeed go to Thailand, for example. But as ordinary plebs?? Do not think that the ranking in the newspaper gives a good / nuanced picture of this.
Take a closer look: is per 10.000 inhabitants.
Also seems a bit strange to me: 35 doctors per 1000 inhabitants, or: 1 in 28…
Thanks, the preamble mentions 'Density of physicians (total number per 1000 population'. So per thousand. But in the table on the site it is indeed per 10 thousand... I can get started at the Bangkok Post in a bit 555.
Hope the trend is clear, the average Thai has less access to healthcare than the average Dutch person. The cited ranking in the magazine therefore seems to me to be aimed at people who can travel around the world in search of the best care.
I miss the comparison with the Netherlands and Belgium…
By shifting the weight of the criteria, you can generate whatever you want in an investigation.
If you give enough weight to the number of nurses with a Thai nationality, Thailand even comes in at number 1.
Furthermore, there are of course many more countries in the world than 89.
Where would they have been in the overview if they had been included?
The so-called good medical care mentioned in the research of the American magazine CEOWORLD, although I have serious doubts about how this result came about, will only be provided in the better private hospitals that remain unaffordable for most Thais.
In many state hospitals there are often very long waiting times, where most Thais are only entitled to some kind of emergency care through the so-called 30 Baht regulation.
The much better care that can be obtained in most private hospitals at a much higher price is unaffordable for a very large part of the Thais.
There will certainly be state hospitals that offer good care, but in many villages it is still very spartan compared to the European standard.
My wife Thai herself, always has to shake her head violently, when Farangs call the general medical care in Thailand better, than the care they were used to from their homeland.
For whom are the results intended and who is the target group of this journal? Especially for the higher management in business, not even for Ger the manager.
The better private hospitals in Thailand are then judged against the normal hospitals in the Netherlands (because in the Netherlands almost everything is a state hospital).
So not all doom and gloom, dear complainers!
Dear Eric, you complain about things you don't like. You can name the things that are going well, but that's not the point. It's about taking certain things under the grain and then the tastes are different as you can read. Without complainers, critics would be a better word, there will be no change, because quite a few benefit from the fact that not everyone is doing well.
That is certainly true that they are among the best!
Maybe not with the best material and beds, but the care for the patient is 100%.
Spent 4 days in hospital in Chanthaburi with denque fever.
On arrival immediately taken to first aid with wheelchair and three caregivers.
Told the doctor what kind of pain I had and where I took a blood test and soon after that the result was denque fever.
The days in the hospital were well cared for. My girlfriend also slept in the room at night.
Pay the fourth day bill approx. 550 euros and go home with the ambulance.
Good care in Thailand that's for sure.
How many Thais can afford € 550 = THB 19.500 for a doctor's bill?
The Netherlands in 11th place, Thailand in 6th place.
To measure is to know, I would like to see the folding rule used.
Give my potion to Fikkie with this research!!
Surprising!
Thailand has a better score than Belgium (9) and the Netherlands (11).
And are the state hospitals also included?
I don't believe that.
I'd better not share my personal experiences with Thai and Indian state hospitals with the readers.
Indeed, health care in Thailand is very good, but only for those with enough money or good health insurance
The same applies here in Holland, Christiaan!
A friend of mine insisted several times on an MRI, the doctor said it was not necessary and also had to wait too long.
He paid for the MRI scan privately and was able to have an MRI the day after.
And what do you think of all those athletes in Holland and those rich people who are always helped immediately because they have money and extra insurance. And Jan with the cap can go to the back of the row.
2 times in hospital located in Thailand! Top care!
I was in February in Bangkok Hospital on Koh Samui, at 2 o'clock at night, measured blood pressure, 2 minute examination, pissed in a potty, rash, kidney stone, received tablets, bill 6000 Bath !! What did my girlfriend say, why so expensive? Oh, then give 3000, quickly earns !!!555 but a nice doctor! That's it again!!!
I have been visiting the state hospital in the city of Lamphun for years for myself and sometimes for my spouse's old father and a newborn niece.
Nothing but praise, yes it is always quite busy and indeed the beds and wheelchairs, etc. are not of the most modern type and there are no copies of Mondrian hanging on the walls.
But I think it's better why it turns out in the end than in the Sophia hospital.
And even the costs are very reasonable.
When I come for a check-up, everything goes smoothly, for example extra examinations and the results of these after an hour or two.
Never have to wait long for surgery or cataract treatment.
Nurses who work at the doctor's consulting rooms work very hard there, partly due to the high number of patients they have to process every day.
I don't see them walking around with boxes of pastries like in the Netherlands, and we my old mother and I wait for hours for the specialist with a fairly low number of patients in the waiting rooms.
In addition, each Tambon has its own hospital where you can go for emergency advice or to treat and care for wounds.
Volunteers also regularly visit the villagers, such as last week at my house for blood pressure checks.
In the Netherlands you soon have to travel as more and more hospitals are being closed, was still hot news every day at the beginning of this year.
Jan Beute.
Sorry Jan, but I was in the Bangkok hospital in Phuket Town earlier this year and they were really walking with boxes of cakes. In fact, sitting in my wheelchair, I also got a piece of coffee and also had to take a picture with a crowd of nurses behind me.
Dear Pjotr, the Bangkok hospital is a chain throughout Thailand and is NOT a state hospital but a PRIVATE hospital.
I always call the Bangkok hospital the, may I see your credit card first hospital.
And in the lamphun state I have never seen pastries, simply because there is no time to eat among the staff.
And if you want to quickly go through your hard-earned savings, the Bangkok hospital is the best place to be hospitalized.
Jan Beute.
Dear Jan, thanks for your explanation but I first set foot in Thailand in 1967 and the last 10 years at least twice a year for a period of 2 months so I know for sure what kind of hospital the Bangkok Hospital is and also the difference between them and a state hospital.
Furthermore, they did not FIRST ask for my credit card, but for my insurance company, which issued a guarantee for the costs and also paid for everything properly, so by NL standards it will not have been exaggerated. When I got home I looked at it and found it quite reasonable. So I have not had to use my savings, leaving it in the middle whether I have them and whether they are hard earned.
Piotr.
A bullshit study based on some statistical data without any depth. It says absolutely NOTHING about the actual quality of healthcare.
This is the professional profile of the author (Sophie Ireland): 'Foreign Correspondent for CEOWORLD magazine media. Policy Advisor, writer, professional restaurant recommender, and native New Yorker. I have approximate knowledge of many things'. So extremely knowledgeable.
CEOWORLD – an online magazine – produces similar 'surveys' of the best 'law/film/music/fashion/business schools in the world'. The best hotels, the best companies, the best CEOs, everything has been researched and ranked. They really are at home in all markets, even if you want to buy a business jet: one of their lists is 'the best business jets for CEOs'.
The World Heath Organization seems to me to be a 'slightly' better source for comparing health care in different countries.
Yes, Jan, those health volunteers who visit old, sick and disabled people at home is one of the better aspects of Thai health care, next to the preventive measures such as vaccinations, etc.
Coincidentally today I received a photo from an acquaintance from Sisaket, where a bus full of health volunteers dressed in yellow polos and yellow vests had just arrived to visit the (sick) old people.
Now I know that there are also health volunteers in the Netherlands, but I don't see a bus full of people appearing somewhere in a small village, so indeed a good aspect of Thai health care.
The difference in Thai State hospitals will undoubtedly be available, only the hospital where we brought my Thai mother-in-law with severe pain last year was not even worth the name hospital in Europe.
We brought her on a Friday afternoon, because she was in severe pain, to the nearby State Hospital in her village, where we were told that no doctor was available during the weekend.
Because this seemed impossible given her condition, we chose a private hospital about 30 km away.
Arriving at the private hospital, someone from my Thai family recognized a doctor on duty, who normally also serves at the State hospital in the village that we had just left.
This doctor found it much more lucrative to be there, given the certainly better pay in the private hospital, so that his normal 30 Baht insured patients had to wait until after the weekend.
I am convinced that many of his colleagues work in the same way, so that in many places even the emergency care in the smaller State hospitals suffers greatly.
Here on the blog we mainly read reports about expats who were satisfied in a State hospital, while a very large part of the Thai population do see the difference in treatment in the much more expensive private houses that are unaffordable for the average Thai.
Dear John, I too have had experience with private hospitals.
in a private hospital close to the Nikom industrial estate, things also went quite slowly during the weekend and there was only one doctor and also missing at night.
A student doctor had to see what was wrong with me then, but the bill presented Monday morning there was nothing wrong with it.
They can write.
Jan Beute.
Dear Jan, Many people who are well insured, or who are lucky enough to have sufficient financial means themselves, will generally opt for a private hospital.
The so-called medical tourism from the more expensive industrial countries would also never have arisen, if the latter had to settle for the average quality from the Thai state hospitals.
Happens all over the world, even in NL.
My wife had to undergo foot surgery at the Canisius in Nijmegen.
The doctor who operated on her worked in a private clinic in his spare time.
Nothing wrong with that, as long as the doctor is not/becomes overtired and makes mistakes as a result.
You can prove what you want with figures… is it affordable for everyone and by that I mean the good quality that people are talking about here. In Belgium and also in the Netherlands, I suspect, you can get decent treatment in any hospital, is this also the case in Thailand? Don't think so, only in the expensive private hospitals you can get it...
The important difference, in addition to the payments, is the lack of adequate equipment in the state hospitals, which is required to make the correct diagnosis or investigation. Often one has to go to the expensive hospital to have this done.
Dear people: Here is the URL of the report:https://ceoworld.biz/2019/08/05/revealed-countries-with-the-best-health-care-systems-2019/