How to Avoid Medical Tourism Disasters in Thailand: Red Flags & Safety Tips

We've all heard at least one horror story about medical tourism, whether first hand or on the news.

In most cases they were early warning signs that could've raised concerns, but going for surgery is new and intimidating enough already. Especially if you also deal with being away from home and speaking a different language!

As an experienced medical tourism agency based in Thailand, here is our advice to minimize your risks guide you away from becoming a news story yourself.

Red flags

Let's start with obvious red flags, if you come across any of these than we highly recommend walking away from the clinic or hospital you are dealing with. Better safe than sorry!

Unreasonably low prices or promotions

Cost is often an important reason for seeking medical care abroad but if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

If the offered price is drastically lower than all of their competitors, this is usually a sign that they are cutting costs in some way that others aren't willing to.

Some price variance is normal, e.g. premium clinics and hospitals or doctors that are well established will be able to command higher prices, while newer or less established clinics will compete on price to win over customers.

But a single clinic being 50% cheaper than everyone else should immediately raise concerns.

Rushing you through consultation or rushing the procedure

If the doctor tries to rush you through the consultation and not properly address your questions or concerns than it is better to find another doctor who will.

Also, if you want to do multiple procedures and they offer to do all of them in one surgery while other clinics or hospitals refuse, this is usually a sign of them trying to rush work and make more money.

Reputable doctors will advice against doing too many procedures at the same time and instead recommend splitting them up on two or more occasions with a recovery period of a few months between them.

Communication issues

If you are having trouble communicating with the doctor during the consultation because of language barriers or if communication from the clinic or hospital is very slow or inconsistent, this is not a good sign.

It is very important that you are able to communicate with the doctor about your medical history, your concerns, your ideal outcome and any questions you have about the procedure. If this is not the case and the clinic or hospital can also not provide a translator, that should raise concerns for you.

For slow/inconsistent replies from the staff, this usually signals disorganization and that often does not bode well for great outcomes.

Signing paperwork to give up rights

Signing paperwork before a procedure is totally normal. To document that you understand risks associated with a surgery, or that you agree to the quoted price and will pay a deposit or the full amount.

But in rare cases we've heard clinics trying to make customers sign clauses that are illegal and unenforceable, like giving up legal rights that you have. Regardless of whether this is enforceable, a clinic asking you to do this is a bad sign and a reason to walk away.

A reputable clinic or hospital will never rush you to sign any paperwork, they will provide the paperwork in English and they will provide multiple copies so both parties have signed copies of the paperwork.

Verify The Doctor and Hospital

If you haven't ran into any of the red flags but just want to do more research on the doctor and clinic/hospital you are dealing with, here is what to look out for.

Please keep in mind that all this advice is specific to Thailand as we are 100% focused on serving medical tourism clients in Thailand only.

Verify your doctor's credentials

• Do they hold an active medical license?
  
  • The Medical Council of Thailand provides an online tool to verify your doctor's medical license. Your doctor should always have an active and valid medical license!
  • If you can not find the doctor, it could be that the translation from their Thai name to English is slightly different, in this case double check with the clinic or hospital and ask them to supply the correct spelling in Thai or English and supply you with the medical license number that matches their name
  • If there have been any license suspensions or revocations in the past, proceed with caution!
• Education
  
  • Which university did they graduate from and when?
  • The following Thai universities are widely considered the most reputable for studying to become a medical doctor because of strict admission requirements and reputable teaching staff:
    
    • Mahidol University
    • Chulalongkorn University
    • Chiang Mai University
    • Khon Kaen University
    • Prince of Songkla University
  • Have they completed research or a fellowship in a country other than Thailand? This often signals that a doctor has better English fluency and experience with treating patients abroad
  • There is no right or wrong for education but if they graduated from a top university, with a fellowship abroad and now have many years work experience, that is obviously a plus!
• Work history
  
  • Which clinics and hospitals have they worked at?
  • Any big unexplained gaps in their work history?
  • How many years of experience have the accumulated?
• Specialzied training: have they done extra training after graduation to learn about new treatment methods or technologies?
• Board certification: are they board certified in Thailand and/or the United States?
• Do they hold Thai nationality? Medical Doctor is a protected profession in Thailand which means that only those with Thai nationality or allowed to practice in the country. Foreign doctors and medical specialists are allowed to work in clinics and hospitals but only in support roles like marketing or as consultants. If the clinic or hospital promises full treatment from any non-Thai doctor, this should be a red flag as they are not licensed to do so!
• For cosmetic surgeries, can they show before-after pictures of the procedure performed on previous clients? We recommend asking for before-after pictures of clients that are similar to you. If the doctor can only show previous results from Asian patients and you are not Asian, this is a sign that it is usually better to look for another doctor. Due to physical differences experience in one procedure doesn't always translate to different patients.

Verify The Clinic or Hospital

• Do they have a hospital accreditation?
  
  • The Hospital Accreditation Authority of Thailand provides a tool to look up any hospital and make sure they are accredited
  • There are two levels of accreditation: basic (HA) and advanced (A-HA) with advanced accreditation providing a more polished patient experience, both requirements for safety and hygiene are the same
  • Note: this accreditation only applies to hospitals, not smaller clinics that will apply for other accreditations.
• What accreditations do they hold?
  
  • JCI: Joint Commission International (JCI) is widely considered the international gold standard and checks more than 1,100 elements to make sure the hospital or clinic meets the requirements. It also requires recertification every 3 years and established procedures for handling complaints. In case you are unable to resolve disputes directly with the hospital, you can contact the JCI accrediting organization directly via the accrediting organization.
  • AACI: American Accreditation Commission International (AACI) is an annual accreditation focused on patient safety and care quality. This accreditation is more achievable for smaller clinics given the high cost and barrier for JCI accreditation.
  • GHA: Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) is a newer international accreditation which
• When were they established? Look for clinics and hospitals that have an established track record
• Do they have a policy in place for dealing with complaints?
• For clinics, are they incorporated in Thailand and how much registered capital do they have?

Online reviews

In all cases we highly recommend checking online reviews for both the doctor and the clinic or hospital where you are seeking treatment. However, there are some things to keep in mind when reading online reviews, especially related to businesses operating under Thai law.

Thailand defamation laws

Thailand has extremely strict defamation laws which limits the amount of negative reviews or the details provided in them. Negative reviews are often posted anonymously or without naming the doctor or clinic/hospital responsible so also check independent review sites and not just the Google reviews.

Real and fake online reviews

When reading reviews online, it is also important to verify the authenticity of online reviews.

• Are the online reviews posted on their own website or social media or an independent platform?
• Are the reviews from new Google or Reddit accounts?
• Are the scores suspiciously high? a new clinic with 100s of reviews or no negative reviews

No one has 100% satisfaction

If the doctor, clinic or hospital has been around for at least a few years, they will have likely had some negative feedback at some point. This can be something very basic, maybe the hospital over-scheduled and thus the client had to wait for a long time or the doctor made a rushed impression.

It is not necessary to search for a doctor that has a 100% perfect track record but instead the reviews should be almost all positive and the complaints should've been handled well.

How Konkai Health Helps

We are a medical tourism agency based in Thailand fully focused on the Thai market only. We partner only with reputable clinics and hospitals and do extensive vetting before we agree to sign any partnership agreements. We visit each of our partner facilities in-person and monitor legal action taken against clinics or hospitals, medical license suspensions or revocations and complaints in both Thai and English language forums.

You can be sure that all our options meet the above requirements and thus we save you many hours of research and stress having to do this research yourself.