Off to Bangkok for cheerful smiles: Trip ends up with a sorrowful agony
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Rezina Sultana
Many people have great personal travel stories to tell. These stories are nothing but sharing different experiences and different perceptions. Like every year, this year as well I, along with my family made a visit to Bamrungrad hospital, Bangkok in order to have a medical check-up for us. Unlike many of the riches of our country, our visit was an essential continuation of medical treatment rather than a mere check-up to measure social status.
Bumrungrad International Hospital is a multiple-specialty medical center located in Bangkok, Thailand. It is frequently referred to as Bumrungrad Hospital or simply Bumrungrad, its name, "Bumrungrad" means "care for the people".
Bumrungrad International is managed by a team of experienced hospital administrators from the USA, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and the UK. The hospital's medical Chairman is--board certified in the United Kingdom. Its Group Medical Director is board--certified in the USA. Other top medical officers were trained in the USA or United Kingdom, and/or held positions at one of Thailand's top teaching hospitals. In accordance with the news report in the Macau Business and in the Smart Travel Asia, a large proportion of the medical staff has international experience, and many possess board certification from the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan or the USA (210 are board-certified in the USA).
According to the internet report it is regularly featured in the world press as a leading medical tourism destination. In 2008, the hospital served 430,000 international patients from over 190 countries seeking high quality and international standard services. The number of international patients has increased sevenfold since 1997 and those patients accounted for 37% of BH's 2002 revenues. The hospital has offices in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Maldives, Vietnam and the Netherlands. However, patients from Bangladesh also avail a huge portion of Bamrungrad medical facility every year.
Unfortunately, this time I lost all my money from the hospital. The whole incident was incredibly sad. The thief took hardly a minute to open the zip of my hand bag and took out the purse. In fact, when we were ordering food on the first floor of the hospital from Mc Donald, I suddenly saw my daughter's stroller falling. My instant reaction was putting that back to the place where it was; while doing that I was almost bound to make an eye contact with an Arab lady who was smiling at me. This was the only moment when I loosened my hand a little. However, after fully satisfied breakfast, we decided to make the day planning. My husband and I decided to exchange money for the day; I opened my hand bag, but to my utter surprise and shock, I realised that the purse was missing. The interesting part is, it happened in front of Mc Donald, situated on the first floor of the hospital premises and the spot where I had to bend for a minute, was out of the reach of the hospital CC TV (Close Circuit Television). So when I made a complain to the hospital authority, they literally tried to avoid the blame as their logic came through one of the hospital employees words, " that spot is out of the hospital CC TV zone, if we could see something, we could take responsibility."
Since we had several appointments in the hospital, therefore, almost every day we visited the hospital from November 4 to November 9 2009 and tried every attempt to communicate with the hospital authority regarding the issue. Finally we gave up the idea to meet the hospital authority as they had several alibis to avoid us.
Interesting information came out while we met one of the doctors. While listening, his immediate reaction was, "Did the incident happen on the first floor near Mc Donald area?" In fact that very question gave all my answers. It was clearly implied that this type of incidents happened before and till now happening at the hospital premises. Later, we heard that there is a group of Arab and Pakistani people who are involved with this type of crimes.
The meaning of the "hospital name" successfully goes along with the doctors' attitude and behaviour. Doctors are good and thorough, friendly and kind. Their dedicated and honest opinions are obviously attracting more patients internationally. Though we had a very stressful time there, but the interactions with doctors gave us a little reassurance.
However, the story doesn't end here. We soon became another victim of Arab theft. It also happened at the same premises. The only difference is that in the plot instead of me, my husband was there and the thief was seen in discussion with him. After a gentle discussion the Arab man intended to visit Bangladesh and asked for my husband's visiting card. As he opened the wallet, the man soon entered his hand and attempted to touch his money. He resisted and stopped him bitterly; the man apologised and vanished within a minute. As my money losing incident already had an impact on my husband, he immediately checked his money. Unfortunately to his utter surprise he found out that more than seven thousand bath (14,000 TK) was missing from there.
We still feel ourselves as the worst fools of the world. Till today, I try to relate the smile of the lady and the fall of my daughter's stroller. On the other hand, my husband is trying to come to term with the magic hands of the Arab man. We must be lucky that in spite of all these, we managed to meet the objectives of the BKK visit. But there could be people who might fall into the same trap with no way of recovery.
Our incidents, however, may be a wake--up call for many Bangladeshis who are going to visit Bangkok for the sake of treatment. In fact, attention must be drawn to the issue of security at the Bamrungrad hospital in combating corruption and money--related crimes.
The writer is Manager, General Training, HR,
Bangla CAT, Bangla Trac Ltd.
Many people have great personal travel stories to tell. These stories are nothing but sharing different experiences and different perceptions. Like every year, this year as well I, along with my family made a visit to Bamrungrad hospital, Bangkok in order to have a medical check-up for us. Unlike many of the riches of our country, our visit was an essential continuation of medical treatment rather than a mere check-up to measure social status.
Bumrungrad International Hospital is a multiple-specialty medical center located in Bangkok, Thailand. It is frequently referred to as Bumrungrad Hospital or simply Bumrungrad, its name, "Bumrungrad" means "care for the people".
Bumrungrad International is managed by a team of experienced hospital administrators from the USA, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and the UK. The hospital's medical Chairman is--board certified in the United Kingdom. Its Group Medical Director is board--certified in the USA. Other top medical officers were trained in the USA or United Kingdom, and/or held positions at one of Thailand's top teaching hospitals. In accordance with the news report in the Macau Business and in the Smart Travel Asia, a large proportion of the medical staff has international experience, and many possess board certification from the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan or the USA (210 are board-certified in the USA).
According to the internet report it is regularly featured in the world press as a leading medical tourism destination. In 2008, the hospital served 430,000 international patients from over 190 countries seeking high quality and international standard services. The number of international patients has increased sevenfold since 1997 and those patients accounted for 37% of BH's 2002 revenues. The hospital has offices in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Maldives, Vietnam and the Netherlands. However, patients from Bangladesh also avail a huge portion of Bamrungrad medical facility every year.
Unfortunately, this time I lost all my money from the hospital. The whole incident was incredibly sad. The thief took hardly a minute to open the zip of my hand bag and took out the purse. In fact, when we were ordering food on the first floor of the hospital from Mc Donald, I suddenly saw my daughter's stroller falling. My instant reaction was putting that back to the place where it was; while doing that I was almost bound to make an eye contact with an Arab lady who was smiling at me. This was the only moment when I loosened my hand a little. However, after fully satisfied breakfast, we decided to make the day planning. My husband and I decided to exchange money for the day; I opened my hand bag, but to my utter surprise and shock, I realised that the purse was missing. The interesting part is, it happened in front of Mc Donald, situated on the first floor of the hospital premises and the spot where I had to bend for a minute, was out of the reach of the hospital CC TV (Close Circuit Television). So when I made a complain to the hospital authority, they literally tried to avoid the blame as their logic came through one of the hospital employees words, " that spot is out of the hospital CC TV zone, if we could see something, we could take responsibility."
Since we had several appointments in the hospital, therefore, almost every day we visited the hospital from November 4 to November 9 2009 and tried every attempt to communicate with the hospital authority regarding the issue. Finally we gave up the idea to meet the hospital authority as they had several alibis to avoid us.
Interesting information came out while we met one of the doctors. While listening, his immediate reaction was, "Did the incident happen on the first floor near Mc Donald area?" In fact that very question gave all my answers. It was clearly implied that this type of incidents happened before and till now happening at the hospital premises. Later, we heard that there is a group of Arab and Pakistani people who are involved with this type of crimes.
The meaning of the "hospital name" successfully goes along with the doctors' attitude and behaviour. Doctors are good and thorough, friendly and kind. Their dedicated and honest opinions are obviously attracting more patients internationally. Though we had a very stressful time there, but the interactions with doctors gave us a little reassurance.
However, the story doesn't end here. We soon became another victim of Arab theft. It also happened at the same premises. The only difference is that in the plot instead of me, my husband was there and the thief was seen in discussion with him. After a gentle discussion the Arab man intended to visit Bangladesh and asked for my husband's visiting card. As he opened the wallet, the man soon entered his hand and attempted to touch his money. He resisted and stopped him bitterly; the man apologised and vanished within a minute. As my money losing incident already had an impact on my husband, he immediately checked his money. Unfortunately to his utter surprise he found out that more than seven thousand bath (14,000 TK) was missing from there.
We still feel ourselves as the worst fools of the world. Till today, I try to relate the smile of the lady and the fall of my daughter's stroller. On the other hand, my husband is trying to come to term with the magic hands of the Arab man. We must be lucky that in spite of all these, we managed to meet the objectives of the BKK visit. But there could be people who might fall into the same trap with no way of recovery.
Our incidents, however, may be a wake--up call for many Bangladeshis who are going to visit Bangkok for the sake of treatment. In fact, attention must be drawn to the issue of security at the Bamrungrad hospital in combating corruption and money--related crimes.
The writer is Manager, General Training, HR,
Bangla CAT, Bangla Trac Ltd.