So, like, the Medical Council of Thailand was all like, “Yo, we think these three doctors messed up when they were treating Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister.” They handed their recommendation over to Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin. Torpol Wattana, who works for the council, and some lawyers were the ones who gave the report to the minister’s aide, Thanakrit Chitareerat. And get this, it’s now up to Mr. Somsak to make a decision within 15 days from when he got the report.
Traditionally, the public health minister is like the honorary president of the medical council. So, he’s got to either say, “Yeah, sure, I agree with you guys,” or be like, “Nah, not feeling it.” If he says no, then it goes back to the council. But here’s the catch – they need a two-thirds majority vote from the council’s 70 members to overrule the minister’s veto. Mr. Thanakrit mentioned that the minister is gonna put together a team to go through like 1,000 pages of evidence that the council gathered to support their decision.
The whole thing is about whether Thaksin was really so sick that he couldn’t be treated in the prison hospital. The council claims that all the evidence they found proves he wasn’t that ill. They dropped the bomb on May 8, saying that three doctors, who they didn’t name but were later ID’d as Pol Lt Gen Dr Thaweesin Vejvithan, Pol Lt Gen Dr Sophonrat Singhajaru, and Dr Ruamthip Supanun, broke some medical rules in handling Thaksin’s case. They suggested suspending Pol Lt Gen Dr Thaweesin and Pol Lt Gen Dr Sophonrat’s licenses for giving false info about Thaksin’s health. Dr Ruamthip, who checked on Thaksin at the Corrections Department Hospital, just got a warning for approving his transfer to the Police General Hospital.
The director of Police General Hospital wasn’t too happy about the council’s findings. He sent some “new info” to the minister to check out before he makes a decision. Now, Mr. Somsak is in a tight spot because if he agrees with the council that Thaksin wasn’t super sick, then it kinda messes up the whole reason why Thaksin got to chill in a fancy room at the police hospital. And this could affect this inquiry by the Supreme Court, which is looking into whether Thaksin’s prison sentence was handled right. The first hearing for that is set for June 13.
So, yeah, it’s gonna be a wild ride for Mr. Somsak in the next couple of weeks. Let’s see what he decides to do, right?
