The Medical Council of Thailand has resolved to suspend two doctors and issue a warning to a third after concluding that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was not critically ill, which had been cited as the reason for him to serve out his prison sentence in a hospital.
Prof Dr Prasit Watanapa, the council vice-president, told a press conference on Thursday afternoon that the resolution, approved by a majority vote, would need approval from the public health minister before being carried out.
The public health minister is Somsak Thepsutin of the governing Pheu Thai Party led by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s daughter.
The three doctors in question worked at the Correctional Hospital and Police General Hospital, said Dr Prasit.
The doctor who will receive the warning failed to meet medical professional standards concerning a referral notice. The two other doctors issued documents that contained false medical information. All three are orthopaedic specialists.
“The information that we received does not clearly show that there was any critical condition as earlier announced,” Dr Prasit said when asked to elaborate on the false information.
The length of the licence suspensions for the two doctors has not been decided. Suspension of a medical licence is considered a severe punishment for any medical professional, said Dr Prasit.
Evidence clear
He also cautioned against drawing conclusions about whether Thaksin’s various illnesses were genuine. He stressed that what the council concluded was that the available evidence did not clearly support claims of a critical condition.
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, 2023, 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 Police General Hospital because he was suffering from chest pain, hypertension and low blood oxygen levels. It was stated that the prison hospital lacked the equipment and expertise to treat critically ill patients.
Thaksin, who will turn 76 in July, 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.
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 November.
Neck brace and sling
He was paroled and discharged from the hospital on Feb 18, 2024, 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.
The former prime minister formally completed his one-year prison term on Aug 31, 2024.
Or did he? The Supreme Court recently surprised legal observers by deciding to investigate whether Thaksin’s prison sentence was properly carried out. It did so after dismissing a petition from a former MP seeking an investigation, as he was not a directly affected party.
Thaksin’s daughter is among those scheduled to be questioned at the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on June 13 about her father’s medical treatment. Thaksin will not attend but will submit a written presentation, his lawyer said earlier.
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