The Medical Council of Thailand is demanding detailed information from Police General Hospital about Thaksin Shinawatra’s illness, treatment and extended stay there instead of jail.
A sub-committee headed by Dr Amorn Leelarasamee, a former council president, is conducting an ethical investigation in response to allegations that favours had been done to let the former premier stay at the hospital.
The sub-committee, which is seeking to determine whether medical professionals breached any ethical guidelines, reportedly sent a written demand to the director-general of the hospital on Monday.
It demanded details on Thaksin’s admission and treatment, all doctors who treated him and their statements on the treatment, and all certified documents concerning his treatment during the six-month period from the day he was admitted to the day he was discharged in February this year.
It asked for the information to be delivered by Jan 15.
On Wednesday political activists gathered at the office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission to urge it to complete its investigation into Thaksin’s extended hospital stay within the next three months.
They pointed out that Thaksin appeared healthy and engaged in activities such as travelling and playing golf not long after his release from hospital, contradicting earlier claims about his fragile health.
Thaksin paid all the costs for his six-month stay, including a VIP room on the hospital’s 14th floor that cost 8,500 baht a night, a parliamentary committee was told last month.
Thaksin, who graduated from the Police Academy and worked at the Metropolitan Police Bureau before turning to business and then to politics, returned to the country on Aug 22 last year after 15 years in self-imposed exile.
On that day, he was taken to the Supreme Court, which sentenced him to eight years in prison for abuse of power and conflict of interest while serving as prime minister prior to 2006. The sentence was later reduced to one year by royal clemency.
On his first night at Bangkok Remand Prison, doctors determined that he should be transferred to the hospital because he was suffering from chest pain, hypertension and low blood oxygen levels.
Thaksin, 75, was legally permitted to receive treatment outside prison for 120 days, but the Department of Corrections allowed him to continue his hospital stay for 180 days, saying that conditions in jail could threaten his life.
He was paroled and discharged from the hospital on Feb 18 on grounds that he was old and seriously ill. He was seen wearing a neck brace and a sling on one arm when he arrived home, and on a few occasions over the following month.
Since then, however, he has been highly active, travelling around the country and campaigning enthusiastically for the Pheu Thai Party that is nominally headed by his daughter, the prime minister.
The former prime minister formally completed his one-year prison term on Aug 31 this year.
Thaksin Shinawatra has dinner with then-prime minister Srettha Thavisin (left) and former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, who is also his brother-in-law, at Ban Green Valley in Mae Rim district of Chiang Mai on March 15 this year. (Photo supplied)
