DHAKA: Dr. Shakti Ranjan Paul, specialist of Internal Medicine and adviser of Bangkok Hospital identified three reasons -- competent physicians, modern equipment and services -- for which Thailand is in a privileged position in respect of medical treatment.
He said that the physicians of Thailand are now working here after being trained in Europe and America. A large number of physicians are available for treating special diseases here. This allows patients to choose their physicians. The doctors listen to the patients carefully and perform necessary investigations to ascertain treatments. The quality treatment is ensured here.
Dr. Paul said that he personally takes 22 minutes on average to check a patient.
He said that Bangkok Hospital is called as the capital of technology. There is a large number of modern equipment. We do not depend on a single machine. As an example, there is 4/5 MRI machines and 5/6 CT scan machines in a hospital. Recently the authorities have installed modern equipment to diagnose and treat cancer patients here.
He also said that the service in Thailand is unparallel. Such service is not available Malaysia and Singapore. The nurses at the hospitals render their best services to the patients. Bangkok has become a unique place for services at hospitals.
Dr. Paul has given a pen-picture of Bangkok hospital alongside the treatment facilities all over the world with comparative analysis while talking at Banglanews office on Thursday afternoon (November 3).
Public Relations Officer (PRO), also Marketing Manager, of Bangkok Hospital, Russel Mahmood Khan, was present here.
DR. Shakti Paul said that the treatment expenses between the 5-star hospitals in India and Bangkok Hospital do not vary much. As a result, the patients choose Bangkok Hospital. Besides, the expenses at 5-star hospitals in Bangladesh are also almost same.
But there are lots of differences with respect to technological facilities, opined the former physician of United Nations Organization (UNO). It is found that in Bangladesh the disease is determined by using 46-slice CT scan machine while in Bangkok they use 250-slice machines. Moreover, they have trained and experienced manpower for handling the modern equipment.
“The physicians in Bangladesh are also meritorious and they have proved it all over the world. But in Bangkok, there is a discipline in treatment. Generally, we give a patient one hour time to learn his/her problems with patience which is not possible here in Bangladesh.”
Dr. Shakti Ranjan Paul had joined as a physician of UNO after taking higher degrees in internal medicine from Chittagong Medical College. He has visited Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand as an employee of the UNO.
He is a practitioner physician in Bangkok. Meanwhile, he has set up an organization in Bangladesh styled as Life and Health Limited.
He informed that the Bangkok Hospital has three overseas offices in Bangladesh -- at Banani and Dhanmondi in Dhaka and one Chittagong.
Dr. Shakti has settled in Thailand in 2001 after his stint as a UNO physician was over. From then on, he has been working as a physician of Bangkok Hospital. He loves Thailand because the people are not so much mechanized and they have a great feeling for mankind. Besides, the country has tremendous natural beauty.
He said that as an internal medicine practitioner, he gives treatment to the patients who have been suffering from two types of diseases -- infectious diseases (like malaria) and metabolic diseases (like diabetes). Besides, he has been treating sexual disease patients for the last 10 years.
The biggest hospital company of Thailand is Bangkok Hospital where 55 percent patients are Thai and the rest 45 percent are from foreign countries.
The hospital has 46 service organizations. As a Bangladeshi physician, he mostly treats Bangladeshi patients. Moreover, he works as a medical officer of four insurance companies.
DR. Shakti strongly recommends Thailand over other South East Asian countries for any kind of treatment. He told that Singapore is also advanced in treatment but in some cases, it is 50 percent more expensive than Bangkok. Malaysia is still a newcomer in health tourism.
He told that here push and pull factors work as everybody loves to live more. They go to Bangkok thinking life is above all because if one does not survive then what is the utility of money.
He cites an example of a Bangladeshi patient who was on ventilation in ICU in a hospital in Dhaka but the physicians gave up hope. The patient was not much solvent but his friends, after arranging money, took him to Bangkok where after three days treatment, the dying patient started dreaming surviving.
His Life and Health Limited has started creating health profiles of the interested patients to bring discipline in health services. He said that documents pile up as the patient goes from one physician to another. To avoid this hazardous situation we have taken an initiative to create profile of the patients.
Any patient can use the profile while taking treatments to other physicians or taking treatment abroad. The profile will be updated automatically. The patient will be given a health card where all information will be stored. These patients will be given 10 percent discount at Bangkok Hospital.
Bangkok Hospital has an Air Ambulance service for the emergency patients. The critical patients can be air-lifted to Dhaka by helicopter and from there to Bangkok with special arrangements, he informed.
Currently, at least two to five patients from Bangladesh are being provided with this facility every month.
There is a separate desk for the Bangladeshis at Bangkok Hospital. All facilities are available there along with interpreters.
If any patient contacts Dhaka office then he is provided with the address of desired physician and appointment, he added.
BDST: 1051 HRS, NOV 04, 2016
Shahjahan/SR
