2 mothers face legal action for selling free nasal spray online
The case came to NHSO’s attention after a doctor and some Facebook pages complained about the sale of nasal spray obtained from state hospitals
The National Health Security Office (NHSO) has threatened to take legal action against at least two mothers for selling a nasal spray medicine they had obtained for their children.
Jadet Thamthatree, NHSO secretary-general, warned of legal repercussions on Thursday after a doctor and several well-known Facebook pages accused certain “cunning” mothers of undermining the universal healthcare system.
Dr Anuchit Niyompattana and Facebook pages like Drama Addict said some mothers took their children suffering from allergies to see doctors, so they could get their hands on bottles of Avamys nasal spray and then sell them online for 350 to 450 baht.
They said these mothers abused the new system, in which patients can see a doctor to obtain the spray if their child has a blocked nose from allergens in the air.
Jadet told reporters on Wednesday that the NHSO had checked records on its online database and found two suspicious cases this year.
In the first case, a mother obtained 318 bottles of Avamys spray after 118 visits to 31 hospitals over the year. In the second case, another mother obtained 147 Avamys bottles from 98 visits to 14 hospitals.
Jadet said these two cases raised suspicion because the patients in both cases were children.
He said that the names and addresses of the suspects were known, but he would withhold the information pending investigation.
Jadet added that the NHSO has taken legal action against three cases of defrauding the universal health system and the suspects have been convicted and jailed. He did not elaborate.
Dr Anuchit, a lung specialist in Nakhon Ratchasima, was the first to blow the whistle on the misuse of the free Avamys nasal spray handout.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the doctor said certain parents were obtaining the nasal spray from hospitals to sell on Facebook groups.
He said this was problematic because the universal healthcare system aims to prevent Thais from going bankrupt due to medical expenses and is funded by taxpayers’ money.
“The drug is free but it comes from our taxes,” Anuchit’s post read.
He said he issued the warning after learning that several people were posting Facebook comments offering Avamys for sale. For instance, he said, a woman offered to sell the nasal spray for 350 baht on the Korat Mothers Facebook page, while another offered it for 450 baht on another page.
Following these revelations, the Drama Addict page warned admins of Facebook groups to be cautious of such posts, saying that supporting such practices was unlawful.
Another Facebook page, Remrin, later explained that the Avamys nasal spray was quite expensive, so some mothers abused the system by leading their children to visit multiple hospitals to obtain the drug for resale.
