A free market keeps dental costs down too

DENTISTS have conceded costs in Australia are contributing to an exodus to Thailand and other countries offering dental treatment at half the price. The Australian Dental Association yesterday warned "buyer beware" in the wake of the dental tourism trend. But the ADA said that, apart from anecdotal tales of botched surgery overseas, there was insufficient evidence to advise Australians not to go.

Thailand has long enjoyed a reputation as a cheap holiday destination. It now attracts thousands of Australians who combine a holiday with a cheap trip to the dentist. More than 1.8 million foreigners visited Thailand in 2005 for medical treatment ranging from sex changes to minor cosmetic surgery. The influx, up from 630,000 in 2002, has generated a multi-million-dollar industry.

Bangkok Dental Spa is one of a growing number of specialist dental centres in the Thai capital catering mostly to foreigners. Patients pay $400 to $500 for a new crown, compared with $1500 in Australia. Implant work ranges from $2800 for surgery and a titanium prosthetic, compared with $4000 locally. Bangkok Dental Spa chief executive Lily Porncharoen said she treated hundreds of Australians each year. Treatment in Thailand was cheap with high clinical and professional standards, she said.. "Australia is a very good market for us," Dr Porncharoen said. "It's not too far and they know Thailand well. "What we (Thai dentists) need is our Government to promote us to Australian people so they understand better our standards. I think more and more Australians will come."

With only anecdotal evidence of pitfalls, the ADA's John Matthews said it was hard to challenge Dr Porncharoen's claims. "I don't think we (ADA) have enough evidence to say: don't do it," he said. Thai dentists were cheaper than Australian counterparts because of lower salaries, lower laboratory costs and a "less regulated" environment, he said.

Labor health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said dental costs under the Howard Government had soared and more than 650,000 people were on public waiting lists for treatment.

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Inside a Queensland public hospital

JAYANT Patel was less of a health risk than the hospital that employed him, a new book on the rogue surgeon says. In a compelling account of working with the former Bundaberg Hospital doctor, a surgical ward nurse paints Dr Patel as an often likeable workaholic who over-rated his ability so much he "thought he was God".

The nurse's insights are penned in the book, Dancing With Dr Death, under the assumed name Virginia Kennedy because of concerns that disclosing her identity would jeopardise future job prospects. "Not all the surgery he did was bad," said Kennedy, who has revealed her real identity to The Courier-Mail. "He did a lot of good surgery. He just over-rated his ability. That's what my book is about. It's the good, the bad and the bits in between."

The 208-page account paints Dr Patel as a Jeckyll and Hyde with a scalpel who became known throughout the hospital as a surgeon to avoid. Kennedy says one nurse even used to repeatedly joke he planned to have "Back off, Patel" tattooed on his body.

But despite Dr Patel's faults, the experienced nurse-turned-author is even more scathing about the hospital's administration and management. "I believe that hospital was a disaster waiting to happen before he ever came there," Kennedy said. "He became the catalyst. He became the match that lit the flame."

She tells of "downright dangerous" workloads in a hospital with little infection control. The book reveals Bundaberg Hospital was so obsessed with saving money staff were ordered not to give patients blankets, unless they were requested, to reduce laundry costs. And a man employed as a "bed carboliser", which involves washing down and remaking beds once a patient has died or is discharged from the hospital, was told by management to cut back on his cleaning. The man, named in the book only as Steve, says he was told by management: "If the bed looks clean, I am not to wash them. I only have to make them." Steve later left the hospital to become a builder's labourer.

Kennedy said management frequently pushed patients out the door ahead of their expected length of stay, telling them to handle their own dressings at home. "We commonly saw people returning with infected wounds and even wounds infested with maggots," she writes.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

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