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Kittinant Inawang, 52, the father of Tavinant, said the clinic had rejected his plea to send his son to a nearby hospital for emergency medical treatment after the boy came down with high temperature, according to Public Health Minister Chavarat Chanveerakul.

Chavarat said the case will be brought before the National Health Security Office's executive board to consider compensation for Kittinant.

Kittinant said he had taken his son to the clinic near his home when his son had fever. A doctor at the clinic told him that his son had normal fever and prescribed him only an antipyretic drug.

But 14 hours later, his son had very high fever and plenty of snot. His symptoms progressively got worse. So he took his son back to the clinic but the doctor repeated his earlier diagnosis and said there was nothing to be worried about.

According to Kittinant, when he asked the doctor to send his son to Bhumibol Hospital, the referral hos¬pital of this clinic, as he had registered his rights under the universal healthcare scheme with this hospital, the clinic rejected his plea.

He decided to take his son to the hospital without waiting for the referral document from the clinic. Within a few hours of being admitted to Bhumibol Hospital, his son died.

Chavarat said Kittinant will receive a maximum of Bt 200,000 as compensation.

However, he has ordered the NHSO to scrutinise the standard of medical treatment of all hospitals who join the universal health scheme.

Medical Council president Somsak Lohlekha said the council's ethical committee will investigate this case. The council is now waiting for the autopsy report of Tavinant from  Thammasat University's Hospital and the medical record from Bhumibol Hospital.

All this information will be sent to the Royal College of Paediatricians of Thailand to find out the cause of the boy's death, he added.