Private hospitals oppose fee increase

They say Thailand could lose its competitiveness in the battle to become a regional medical hub.

"Who would come here if our medical treatment costs were higher than in their original country or our rival nations?" asked Private Hospital Association of Thailand president Aurchat Kanjanapitak.

He said the Kingdom would lose its competitive edge to rivals like Malaysia and Singapore, which at present provide similar-quality services at higher prices.

Ammar on Sunday suggested private hospitals be forced to increase medical bills for foreign patients by 30 per cent in order to solve the severe shortage of physicians. He said this would increase government revenue as much as Bt6 billion. The extra revenue could be used to fund the national healthcare programme, which is in a poor state from a shortage of practitioners in public hospitals.

He attributed the shortage to Thailand's strategy of becoming a medical hub. Private hospitals provide better services to lure foreign patients, and so they offer high salaries to public-hospital physicians.

One Public Health Ministry study predicts that in 2015, the number of outpatients will increase to 8 million and inpatients to 400,000, due to the medical-tourism scheme. This will require an additional 176 to 303 physicians.

"The private sector will consume a large number of physicians and cause shortages for public hospitals," said Thinakorn Noree, who conducted the study.

Aurchat admitted private hospitals were luring physicians from public hospitals but said that in the past few years the brain drain accounted for only 50 out of 1,800 specialists.

Instead, he said the workforce shortage was a result of mismanagement in medical-worker distribution throughout the country. He suggested the government resolve the problem rather than placing the blame on private hospitals.