HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Hospital nightmare

Please TOT do something

Aircon bus elimination is terrible blight on current administration

Is Pattaya dangerous?

Pattaya Mail

Hospital nightmare

Dear Editor,
I feel I must answer a letter I have read by David Snowden in May 28,vol XII No 22 edition of Pattaya Mail. I would like to give another view of this hospital please!

My wife (Thai) and I decided to have a baby, and as neither of us had any children we longed for the day. My wife had to have an operation to join tubes together, cut many years before, and the operation went ahead and quoted at 28,000 baht. The bill ended up to be 42,000, not unusual!

13 months later we are over the moon, she is pregnant, our first baby on its way! We made regular visits, and at the 18 weeks scan, I asked, because I was concerned, ‘’is everything ok?” and the reply was ‘’everything 100%”.

At 22 weeks we had another scan, and I asked the same questions and received the same answers. By this time we had decided to return to England for a better life for all of us. The doctor gave my wife an envelope to give to the doctors in England (sealed).

At 28 weeks we went to the hospital for another scan, but shock and horror, within seconds they could see big problems, and on opening the letter it ‘stated’ the same. They knew all the time, but said nothing at all. The heart stopped beating at 30 weeks and died, but my wife had to carry that dead baby for another 6 days before inducement worked, then spent two days in hospital. They could not have changed the outcome, we now know, but it was their duty to tell all, as that is what doctors do, at least in a civilized world. My wife e-mailed her Thai doctor and she replied saying ‘’sorry”. Later we contacted the ‘head’ and we were told that ‘’all’’ my wife’s records have gone!

I lived in Pattaya for many years, and could tell you of more horror stories than good ones. As in most sections of Thai society, money rules the roost - they are ‘mercenaries and can get away with it.

My wife received the best attention possible here (UK), from caring thoughtful doctors and nurses, but she is disgusted at the way she was treated, and vows ‘never;’ to return there.
Mr & Mrs Ball
ex-Thailand residents
Please print this on behalf of our dead baby boy!

Please TOT do something

Editor;
When I received notice from my ISP that the TOT was initiating broadband service for Thailand computers, I was overjoyed, as this enables faster downloads and sending that far surpasses anything we had before.

I paid the necessary fees to TOT and the connection was installed. My joy has since turned to downright disgust as my ADSL line is disconnected many times a month for hours and lately for days. This is due to a poor telephone line for my computer.

I have contacted TOT every time I am disconnected and they somehow fix the problem, only to have the problem reoccur a short time later. I have tried to induce them to provide a new line to no avail.

One has only to examine the rats nest of lines on the poles to know what the problem is. These telephone lines need replacing in a proper manner and maintained efficiently. Now, when I report a problem they only apply a band-aid which is definitely the wrong method. The monthly fee is still applied even though I have asked them to delete payment for off line time. I’m sure that I am not the only one with this problem.

Please, TOT, do something to alleviate this perplexing problem.
Frank Mack
Pattaya

Aircon bus elimination is terrible blight on current administration

Editor:
As a long-stay visitor to Pattaya, let me say how amazed I was to read that the baht bus drivers were “disappointed” at the public response to the city-bus “changeover”. The fact that the city allowed the elimination of the aircon buses is a terrible blight on the current administration.

The aircon buses were utilized for a few important reasons. One, they were air-conditioned with comfortable seats. You weren’t forced to sit on a piece of wood, being bounced around on a truck bed with no shock absorbers.

And you didn’t have so many people on the bus that you could no longer breathe. The other day, a bus driver allowed 18 people to be in his truck bed. Can you imagine how uncomfortable we were?

Two, the staff and drivers didn’t rip you off. You paid your five baht, whether Thai or foreigner, and was given a receipt and a thank you. The current yellow baht bus drivers who took the place of the city bus, kept their same bad habits. They will NOT give proper change back to a foreigner because they believe that the fare should be 10 baht for “us”. And when did one of the yellow baht bus drivers ever “thank” a rider? You are lucky they don’t drive off with your arm still in the window collecting what change they are willing to give you.

By the way, I know you won’t publish it, but my last rip off was this week, bus number 187 would not give me the proper change, forcing me to pay 10 baht instead of 5. And yes, he is one of the new “yellow” bus drivers.

Three, you ALWAYS knew where the aircon busses were going. The yellow baht busses can do anything they want - including becoming a taxi, and take customers up Soi Pattayaland 2. So you can’t be sure where they are going.

If someone wants to go somewhere and will pay, it doesn’t matter who is on the bus already.

I utilized the aircon busses often from Royal Garden to Big C and back. Although I felt they should continually run the route, rather than sitting in queue at city hall, I still felt they ran a good program. The drivers and staff were always courteous.

What amazed me the most about the program was the number of Thai riders. Every bus I took had a substantially larger number of Thai riders than foreigners. Ask around and you will find that the Thais dislike the baht bus system because the drivers treat them even worse than the foreigners.

And finally, baht bus drivers have no room to complain. I watched one driver quote US Military men 100 baht per person to go to a location that should have been 100 baht total. The same day, I couldn’t get any of the five baht bus drivers parked at Royal Garden to take me to the Bangkok Hospital because the standard fare of 100 baht wasn’t enough that day - they were waiting for the “bigger fish”.

As to the complaint telephone number 038 423 554 that you listed in the paper, with the indication to call “any time of the day”, I tried calling on Saturday, May 29, in the afternoon and did not get an answer. I was curious to know whether someone would answer the phone that spoke English.

None of my friends will use the yellow bus any more - it is not worth the time or effort. So congratulations Pattaya, you have again allowed a group of misfits to override the good of the public for the benefit of the few.
Joe from America

Is Pattaya dangerous?

Editor;
In reply to Mark Thomas’s letter, I cannot agree with the editor’s remarks. Pattaya is a very dangerous place - you are liable to get drunk every day, be forced to eat fantastic food - and no doubt someone will steal your heart making you want to return again and again and again!
Alex Pollock
Leicester

Pattaya Mail

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