Vajira hospital denies claim it refused to treat red shirt protesters

Hospital director Dr Chaiwan Charoenchoktawee said the report was untrue.

Red shirt protesters who are loyal to fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra have blocked all access to parliament on Monday to prevent government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from delivering policy statements.

The government has to shift meeting venue from parliament to Foreign Ministry because of the protest. Upon learning the change of venue, protesters moved to surround the ministry. Some protesters were injured during the push with police.

The director was speaking after a speaker of the protest spoke on stage that doctors at Vachira Hospital refused to treat the protesters. Hosts of community radio stations which allied with the protesters repeated the claims during their programmes.

Chaiwan said nine red shirt protesters, mostly women, came to the hospital, asking treatment for having fatigue. Doctors then checked their heartbeats and x-rayed for some.

Doctors said their fatigues were caused by lacking of sleeps for long time. They were given medication and one of them had to stay at the hospital. "Our information showed our doctors treated them. Their claims that they were refused was groundless," he said.

"During the treatment, a sick female protester said that she has gold health care card which allowed her to receive free service from the hospital. She failed to show required documents to claim the free service. But our doctors compromised by not asking for the documents," he said.

The director doubted that the claim that his doctors refused to treat the protesters may stem from the incident.