Dr. Pirus Pradithavanij

by Dr. Iain Corness

Meeting the director of Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, Dr. Pirus Pradithavanij, it is difficult to imagine that this very young looking man is a graduate medical doctor who has spent time in America at Yale and Harvard, and has also worked his way up through the ranks in Preventive Medicine and Public Health here in Thailand.
Dr. Pirus (pronounced “Pirut”) was born in Bangkok, where his father was a policeman and his mother a teacher. Dr. Pirus paused for a moment to record his appreciation of his parents and their efforts in making sure he had a good education. “My parents worked so hard to send me to a good school. It was an investment for me for my future.”
He responded to their commitment with his own commitment to them. “I needed to study hard to make sure I passed (my exams),” he said. By the time he was at the end of his secondary education, the direction towards medicine as a career was obvious. He had three uncles and two aunts who were doctors, and I am sure there was a subtle influence there, even though his parents did not push him towards any particular discipline, other than to understand the benefits of hard work. Dr. Pirus also said, “I wanted to be a doctor to help people.”
After six years at Siriraj Medical School and his 12 months internship, he moved out into being a GP and servicing a community hospital at Surat Thani in the south of Thailand. He enjoyed the region, the scenery, the seafood and meeting tourists, but after two years it was time to move on. “I had to think about my future, though at that time, I really didn’t know (which specialty). I liked surgery and I was selected by the top surgeons to work as their assistants, but I decided to wait before making the decision. I let my friends go first, who told me their experiences.”
Despite his surgical skills, the young Dr. Pirus felt he needed to explore the relationship between doctors and their patients, so re refocused on General Medicine as a specialty. His grades were such that he was offered a scholarship to a residency program in the US, but he was still uncertain. He began to look at the bigger picture. Instead of helping one patient, what could he study to help 10 or even 100 patients?
He thought of Immunology and began to study that discipline and even won another scholarship to study this in the US, but he did not like the medical school. He began to see that his direction should be towards Public Health and Epidemiology if he wanted to provide benefits for even larger groups of patients, and was accepted into the famed American Yale university. He then went on his first overseas study trip.
On his return to Thailand, he could see the real situation in his homeland, a developing country. “If I studied Health Policy and Health Management it would let me do the maximum good.” He was accepted into Harvard in these fields and returned to the US for more study.
Now with even more knowledge and experience in the field of Preventive Medicine he moved into the government institute in Bangkok for the Royal Thai Air Force. He was now able to work with ‘groups’ of people and was instrumental in making policies based on such basics as supply and demand, improving the accuracy of tests in health screening programs and analyzing the needs of patients in a day to day situation.
After this he went out into the country again, to be the director of a government hospital in Prachuap Khiri Khan. “This was a very scenic location, but the staff were working for themselves, rather than the hospital. It was difficult for me to motivate them. I worked hard to be a good (role) model for them, using incentives and discipline.” It was a difficult time for Dr. Pirus. He was significantly younger than many of his colleagues, some of whom had been at the community hospital for many years, and set in their ways. He achieved good results in the two years he was there, but then he could see that the potential for improvement was getting less, so he should move on.
Returning to Bangkok, the Ministry of Public Health had introduced the 30 baht medical scheme, which Dr. Pirus described as “chaos” and did not look like the area he wanted to be in. He had also been doing some epidemiological research for the World Health Organization (WHO), but that was not going to be a full-time occupation either.
He began to look at the private sector, and spoke to Dr Pichit Kangwolkij, who was then the director at the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. Dr. Pirus was interested, but before making the big decision asked if he could continue with his WHO research programs, and was reassured that he could, provided it was just one a year.
He joined the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital and very quickly worked his way up to deputy director. However, Dr. Pirus did not feel that he had “made it”, in fact quite the reverse, saying, “This was a good opportunity to learn something.”
His superiors were also impressed with his administrative and problem solving abilities and he was moved on to the Samitivej Sriracha hospital, to be the director there, and then from there to return to the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital as its director.
He is a popular figure in the hospital, and directs his staff by not using his director’s hat. “We are colleagues,” says the mild-mannered Dr. Pirus.
Personally, his credo is just to do the best he can, and as a hobby, he listed his family. This encompasses ringing his parents each week and visiting every month, and supporting his 10 year old daughter’s endeavors.
Dr. Pirus Pradithavanij is one of nature’s gentlemen, and we are lucky to have him in our local hospital.

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