The Medical Council of Thailand on Thursday submitted its recommendation to punish three doctors involved in the treatment of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin.
Torpol Wattana, an assistant to the council secretary-general, and the council’s lawyers presented the report to the minister’s aide, Thanakrit Chitareerat. The latter said it would be in the hands of Mr Somsak on Friday.
By tradition, the minister of public health serves as the honorary president of the medical council. In that capacity, Mr Somsak has 15 days from Friday to decide whether he should endorse or reject its recommendations.
If the minister disagrees with the decision, the issue will be sent back to the council. A two-thirds majority of the council’s 70-member board is required to overrule the veto.
Mr Thanakrit said the minister would set up a panel to go through the 1,000 pages of evidence gathered by the council’s investigative committee to support its conclusion.
The council undertook to look into ethical questions related to the handling of the Thaksin case. The former premier had just begun a one-year prison sentence when he was transferred to the Police General Hospital in August 2023. He remained there for 180 days and was discharged after being approved for parole.
At the heart of the case is whether Thaksin was so “critically ill” that he could not be treated in a prison hospital. The council said all the evidence it gathered showed that he was not.
The council announced on May 8 that three doctors had breached medical ethics in handling the Thaksin case. It did not disclose their names but they were identified by Isra News Agency as Pol Lt Gen Dr Thaweesin Vejvithan, Pol Lt Gen Dr Sophonrat Singhajaru and Dr Ruamthip Supanun.
The council recommended the licence suspension of Pol Lt Gen Dr Thaweesin of Police General Hospital and Assistant National Police Commander Pol Lt Gen Dr Sophonrat, who was then a senior doctor at the hospital, for providing inaccurate information about Thaksin’s health.
It recommended a warning for Dr Ruamthip, who examined the health condition of Thaksin at the Corrections Department Hospital. She signed off on the letter approving his transfer for treatment at Police General Hospital.
The council’s conclusions angered the director of Police General Hospital, who has submitted what his lawyer said was “new information” for the minister to review before he makes a decision.
As a key figure in the governing Pheu Thai Party, Mr Somsak now faces a difficult situation. If he endorses the council’s conclusion that Thaksin was not “critically ill”, he effectively eliminates the justification for the ex-premier’s extended stay in a 14th-floor VVIP suite at the police hospital.
That in turn could have a bearing on an inquiry by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions. It is looking into whether Thaksin’s prison sentence was adequately enforced. The first hearing will be on June 13.
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