A network of patients unhappy with the cost of their private medical treatment are gathering signatures for a petition which they will use to urge Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to set up a committee to regulate charges.
"The government must put private hospitals under stricter control to keep their medical bills in check. Most people can make a payment if the prices are reasonable and accountable, but some medical bills are issued carelessly. Details of some treatments are not given and irrelevant expenses are added," said Preeyanan Lorsermvattana, a medical justice advocate.
She was speaking at a seminar organised by the Foundation of Consumers, a non-governmental organisation advocating consumer rights.
Ms Preeyanan hopes to gather 50,000 signatures to back her call for Gen Prayut to take action. So far 40,000 people have shown their support.
More than 30 years ago, she had a serious dispute with a hospital she accused of committing an error which caused her only son to be permanently crippled. This led her to set up the Thai Medical Error Network to be a voice for patients affected by medical malpractice.
The seminar addressed pricey medical services in private hospitals -- a problem often encountered by the middle class who prefer the convenience of private medical service providers. Attendees at the seminar shared their frustration and worry that SET-listed hospitals' are now driven by profit, rather than humanitarian and moral purposes.
Some patients or their families have faced lawsuits because they failed to settle their medical expenses and, in some cases, hospitals have rejected patients' rights to free treatment under the state universal "gold card" health care scheme, said Ms Preeyanan.
Among them is Phaichit Katanyuta. A private hospital treated her mother's stroke but, instead of collecting money from the National Health Security Office (NHSO) under the gold card scheme, it directly charged her family, she told the seminar.
That was a problem because the law does not allow the NHSO to pay money directly to patients or relatives, Ms Phaichit said.
Such conflicts with hospitals should to be probed by an independent committee, suggested Yupphadi Sirinsuk, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
"It's not right to let patients go bankrupt because of their illness," Ms Yupphadi said.
