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Best Government Hospital In Chiang Mai


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I'm needing to choose a government hospital that's in the public healthcare Social Security system (Bragaan Sukapaap).

My understanding is that Sri Phat is not eligible, because it's the private part of the larger government-run Suan Dok Maharaj Hospital.

So, leaving out Sri Phat, what are the other good options? How is the waiting time at Maharaj? How are Lanna and Theppunya? Does Maharaj have a better choice of doctors and surgeons, since it's bigger? Where's the place to enter for general outpatient medicine at Maharaj? And, once in the system, how hard is it to change one's hospital choice?

Advice will be appreciated.

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Nakornping and Ruam Phaet are truly government hospitals, along with a few others. I would not recommend anyone go to Ruam Phaet. Nakornping is not too bad. I've been there with, or to visit Thai friends.

Suan Dok Maharaj is on the road to semi-privatization. It's a great teaching hospital.

I'm fairly certain the others you mentioned are private. There are so many hospitals in Chiang Mai to choose from.

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And, once in the system, how hard is it to change one's hospital choice?

Once a year you can change your elected hospital. Maharaj probably is the best choice as it has some of the top doctors, many ajarns at CMU. I found that being a farang in civil service that I usually get expedited to see a doctor. There was a specific room on the 2nd floor for seeing those on civil service insurance that I was always directed to rather then queuing at the outside desks.

Lanna has always been on the list of choices for hospitals for me so believe it is a government hospital. Also, I was always given a list of possible hospitals to elect so see if that list is available to you to look at. I agree, I personally would leave Ruam Phat out of the equation.

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I would not recommend anyone go to Ruam Phaet.

My MIL went top Ruam Phaet with a head ache and got a shot (pain killer). Head ache came back, she went back. The doctor, with no further exam (e.g., no xray) suggested she might have brain cancer, better go to Suan Dok. She almost had a heart attack on the spot.

Check the details on Sri Pat. We take the in-laws to Sri Pat for the speed of service (our time is worth the extra fees), and my FIL (retired Thai military)takes the receipts and gets some reimbursement.

You may find out that paying an extra fee over what is reimbursable is worth your time.

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And, once in the system, how hard is it to change one's hospital choice?

Once a year you can change your elected hospital. Maharaj probably is the best choice as it has some of the top doctors, many ajarns at CMU. I found that being a farang in civil service that I usually get expedited to see a doctor. There was a specific room on the 2nd floor for seeing those on civil service insurance that I was always directed to rather then queuing at the outside desks.

Lanna has always been on the list of choices for hospitals for me so believe it is a government hospital. Also, I was always given a list of possible hospitals to elect so see if that list is available to you to look at.

There seems to be a misunderstanding here; most of the hospitals on the list of social healthcare providers are private, including Lanna. Some of those private hospitals have a separate section for patients receiving treatment under social insurance, again including Lanna.

I think Lanna is a good choice, but it's gotten VERY popular lately, meaning longer waits. No complaints about the treatments though or the level of care and attention.

Suan Dok is a government hospital. I went in there once 15 years ago. That was enough. Not sure if / how it improved or that it's still a zoo.

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And, once in the system, how hard is it to change one's hospital choice?

Once a year you can change your elected hospital. Maharaj probably is the best choice as it has some of the top doctors, many ajarns at CMU. I found that being a farang in civil service that I usually get expedited to see a doctor. There was a specific room on the 2nd floor for seeing those on civil service insurance that I was always directed to rather then queuing at the outside desks.

Lanna has always been on the list of choices for hospitals for me so believe it is a government hospital. Also, I was always given a list of possible hospitals to elect so see if that list is available to you to look at.

There seems to be a misunderstanding here; most of the hospitals on the list of social healthcare providers are private, including Lanna. Some of those private hospitals have a separate section for patients receiving treatment under social insurance, again including Lanna.

I think Lanna is a good choice, but it's gotten VERY popular lately, meaning longer waits. No complaints about the treatments though or the level of care and attention.

Suan Dok is a government hospital. I went in there once 15 years ago. That was enough. Not sure if / how it improved or that it's still a zoo.

As mentioned, you can choose private and government hospital as a registered healthcare provider under SSO. There is a few things you might want to find out before making any decision.

As you know that the SSO health care system is provided by the fund from three parties ( Yourself, your enployer and the government). Each registered hospitals receive the budget from the SSO ~2000 baht per head per year, so they have to manage all the patients who register with them within the limited budget. If there were 10000 people register with them,for instance, they will have 20MB to manage for those 10000 patients in the whole year. Say, there were 10 cases of heat attack which require CCU and streptokinase drip,it would cost about 200K/person and equal to 2 MB, that is 1/10 of the whole year budget and think about the OPD cases and Other IPD cases??How would they manage?? the Private hospital work to gain maximum profit so they will try every way to lower their cost even though they have to postpone elective(Neccessary) surgery, they will do.For the gevernment hospital, they will give you the treatment as neccesary whether that will cost $$$ as they do not worry about the profit. They government will support them anyway.

For Suan dok, will not accept transfer from any other hospital during the year, because most of the case that need the transfer,need serious care.

I dont know if this make sens,but think and check carefully before choose any hospital.

Good Luck.

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