Anutin vows to look into hospital hotline furore

Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul yesterday vowed to look into an allegation that a member of Ratchaburi Hospital’s emergency medical service unit mocked a woman calling to request an ambulance and hung up the phone on her.

Mr Anutin said he had yet to receive a formal report about the alleged incident and was determined to find out what actually happened that led to the complaint.

He was referring to media reports about a woman who posted on her Facebook that she was badly treated when she called the hospital’s 1669 emergency medical service hotline to urgently request an ambulance for her sick father.

The caller, Pronrawin Ongpisut, claimed the person who answered the phone kept repeating that he couldn’t hear her before pretending there was interference on the line and hanging up.

She said the exchange made her angry because her father, Phisit Ongphisut, 53, was suffering serious breathing difficulties and needed urgent help.

The emergency phone call was made on Sunday, she said.

Her father later died in hospital after he was rushed there in an ambulance that was sent to her home by the hospital, she said.

Dr Pichian Wuthisathirapinyo, the hospital director, yesterday told a press conference that the call was a misunderstanding and the staff member didn’t intend to mock Ms Pronrawin.

The misunderstanding could well have arisen from a poor phone signal, said the doctor.

He added that the hospital would do what it can to try improve its emergency telephone service even further to ensure customer satisfaction.