The comments flew after hospital doctor Boonlert Sripairojkul posted on Facebook post that the hospital’s icroscope – needed in order to perform microsurgery and neurological surgery – had been used since 2002 and “fixed several times”.
Dr Boonlert said the microscope no longer worked well, which put doctors under a lot of pressure when treating patients.
He later edited his post to say “the microscope had been used for almost 20 years” and posted in Thai “I have to wait for donated money from P’ Toon (Future Minister of Public Health LOL) running in October.”
Dr Boonlert also explained that the hospital needed B18mn to buy the quality of microscope needed.
The “P’Toon” reference was to celebrity Artiwara “Toon” Kongmalai of the popular Thai rock band Bodyslam who will run nearly 300km run in October to raise funds for five government hospitals in Southern Thailand, including Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town – Phuket’s leading government hospital on the island. (See story here.)
Dr Chalermpong explained that the Ministry of Public Health had approved to provide B10 million to buy a new microscope.
“The microscope cannot be fixed anymore. The Ministry of Public Health has acknowledged the problem, leading to this press conference today, which aims to help us find the funds quickly,” he said.
However, despite the B10mn in funding being provided, Dr Chalrmpong added, “For more money, the hospital has to find by themselves.”
“Vachira Phuket Hospital is a big hospital which has to welcome patients from four Andaman coast provinces, Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Ranong, around 2,200-2,400 patients per day,” Dr Chalermpoong said.
“Now our microscope is broken, so we cannot do [some] operations for our patients, so we urgently have to find some fund to buy a new microscope,” he said.
Joining Dr Chalermpong was Raywat Areerob, former Phuket MP as a member of the Democrat Party, and who also serves as an Assistant to the Minister of Public Health.
Mr Raywat explained that proper procedures were being followed in the procurement of a new microscope for the hospital.
He also pointed out that Phuket’s resident population far exceeded the number of people registered as living in Phuket – the key factor used by government agencies in Bangkok when in determining budgets to provide funds in order to provide much needed services and to develop infrastructure.