Thaksin’s health condition 'worrying', but transfer to private hospital ruled out
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s health condition was worrying but the Police General Hospital would not transfer him to a private hospital for treatment, the hospital’s chief physician said on Friday.
Pol Lt-General Dr Sophonrat Singhajaru said that a medical checkup on Wednesday found that the condition of Thaksin’s lungs and heart was “worrying”.
“His blood pressure has stabilised. He did not collapse and he was able to communicate with the doctor [during the checkup],” the chief physician told reporters.
He declined to estimate how long it would take for Thaksin to be treated at the hospital.
Thaksin, 74, was transferred from Bangkok Remand Prison to the Police General Hospital at an early hour on Wednesday. He had returned to Thailand just the previous morning to serve his eight-year jail term in corruption cases, after spending 15 years in self-imposed exile overseas.
Sophonrat disclosed on Friday that the Corrections Department hospital at Bangkok Remand Prison had requested Thaksin’s transfer to the Police General Hospital at short notice.
He also reiterated that over the past three decades, many inmates had been sent from the Corrections Department hospital to the Police General Hospital for treatment, and that Thaksin was not the first case. “They have rights as patients,” the chief doctor added.
Sophonrat also said that his hospital would not disclose details about patients being treated there because they were protected under the law. “To disclose any information, you need permission from the patients and their families,” he said.
In response to media reports that Thaksin would be moved to a private hospital, the chief physician said that the Police General Hospital had the capacity and equipment needed to treat the former prime minister.
“He definitely would not be moved to any hospital. The only transfer after this is back to the Corrections Department hospital,” Sophonrat said.
However, he added that the Corrections Department may consider moving Thaksin to another facility if it found that treatment at the Police General Hospital was ineffective.
“The Police General Hospital has no power to send patients [received from the Corrections Department] to any private hospital. We only have the duty to treat patients. We have nothing to do with political or security matters,” the chief doctor said.
In a related development, restricted access appeared to be imposed on the Police General Hospital’s computer system on in-patients, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. The move came after rumours that Thaksin was moved out of the hospital and admitted to a Bangkok luxury private hospital.
A source at the Police General Hospital told Nation TV that even staff members at the hospital could not access the system to see if Thaksin was still being treated there.
It was reported earlier that the ex-premier was admitted to a suite in the hospital’s Premium Ward, on the 14th floor of a new building.
