Supporters praise on the doctors ‘ team as it requests information from the ex-PM’s six-month clinic stay.
PUBLISHED: 15 Jan 2025 at 18: 59
As part of an investigation into potential breaches of medical ethics, students and civil society organizations have offered moral support to the Thai Medical Council of Thailand as it waits for the records of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra from the Police General Hospital ( PGH).
The hospital’s obligation to provide the ex-premier’s health information as part of its investigation into the morality of the doctors who performed his cure had been set by the government on Wednesday.
It demanded information about Thaksin’s attendance and care, all medical professionals who treated him and their comments regarding the treatment, as well as all accredited documents pertaining to his care over a six-month period beginning the day he was admitted to the day he was discharged in February of this year.
After returning to Thailand next August, Thaksin, 75, received an eight-year prison sentence that was later reduced to a year by a royal pardon. He always spent a one night in jail, and after six weeks, he was eligible for parole.
The Department of Corrections allowed him to maintain his stay at the hospital for 180 days because his circumstances in prison was threaten his life, despite the law’s exceptions that allow him to receive care outside of prison for 120 days.
Thaksin paid all the expenses for his six-month remain, including a VIP room on the patient’s 14th surface that cost 8, 500 ringgit a day, a parliamentary commission was told in November.
The Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand, led by Pichit Chaimongkol, praised the physician council’s efforts to uncover the truth about Thaksin’s protracted hospital stay.
He urged the Ministry of Public Health to avoid interfering with the mayor’s research or using it to cover up those responsible for arranging Thaksin’s clinic stay rather than his prison sentence.
” If this problem is allowed to pass, the only thing’ ill’ will be the government’s fairness system”, he said.
He said that if the officers, who handle the doctor, fail to deliver Thaksin’s medical information, the teams would gather at Government House to demand action from Thaksin’s child, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. He emphasized that maintaining the rules is a public duty.
On Wednesday, a clinical council legal representative thanked the organizations for their support.
If the doctor does not hand over Thaksin’s records, an exploratory committee from the council will explicit based on the information it has gathered, or it could encourage state agencies to provide additional information, he said.