Reports of rotten apples in a highly regarded medical profession have managed to shock society, again. This time, a psychiatrist at the Police General Hospital (PGH) has been arrested for allegedly buying 15 million baht of alprazolam -- a controlled substance that can be used as a recreational drug -- to resell at inflated prices.
Pol Col Anchulee Theerawongpaisal was arrested yesterday along with other suspects. Police also searched her room at a police flat in the Phaya Thai area and found over 170,000 tablets, including alprazolam and other Type-2 and Type-4 narcotic substances.
Apart from working at the PGH as a psychiatrist and drug therapist, Dr Anchulee moonlighted at 12 private clinics and hospitals as a licensed doctor. Police investigators allege she used these private clinics to order controlled substances from 2023 onwards.
These medicines were allegedly sent to her police flat and redistributed to other drugstores and outlets for resale as recreational drugs. Police estimate she might have made as much as 80 million baht. Alpozaram can be used recreationally and as a "date rape drug" for illegal sale.
It cannot go without saying that Dr Anchulee -- once a former deputy police spokeswoman -- lead a campaign against date rape drugs.
The case is also a reminder of the outrageous pharmaceutical fraud case which was uncovered at the Veterans General Hospital (VGH) in March. In this case, Kanyarat Jitprasong, a retired colonel who worked as a nurse at the VGH, channelled fake patients from Lop Buri to Dr Barinda Ujwatee, who would prescribe large amounts of medications for made-up illnesses.
Members of a criminal network joined a team of fake patients who went to VGH to ask for expensive, imported medications that would be resold at pharmacies in Bangkok and Chon Buri at inflated prices.
The scam at VGH persisted for years and would have continued if not for a whistle-blower who infiltrated the fake-patient network and provided information to the VGH director and the police.
What is even more surprising is that Col Kanyarat had been probed for medical fraud before and was reappointed to work at other departments under the Ministry of Defence.
In the latest case, Dr Anchulee allegedly used the names of 370 dead people as fake patients to get Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permits to purchase these medicines. The FDA later became suspicious after the volume of purchases rose substantially from 1 million baht in 2023 to 11 million baht last year.
Any guardrails the PGH and the Royal Thai Police (RTP) have in place to detect their staff's ethical compliance and behaviour need to be reviewed to ensure they are effective.
Needless to say, the latest case is a slap in the face for the RTP. Another big question is how and where Dr Anchulee obtained the names of deceased people for her fake patient lists. The Public Health Ministry must investigate any potential data leaks and hold those responsible accountable.
Both pharmaceutical fraud cases raise questions about whether state hospitals have a monitoring system in place to detect warning signs, such as irregular drug prescriptions, or barriers to prevent patient data from being used for fraud. The bigger question is how many similar cases happen?
With a lack of enforcement and ineffective corruption detection, it is not surprising that there are more bad apples in the system.