Med school malpractice: Thai students fight ‘doctoring’ of licence fees

A prospective Thai doctor is on a quest for justice after educational service agencies allegedly attempted to overcharge her and 20 other medical students studying in the Philippines, and fabricated a document for medical licences in Thailand. There are also suspicions that the Medical Council of Thailand may have had a hand in these dubious dealings.

The victim, referred to as A, gathered documents and evidence related to the issue and submitted them to the Foundation to Reclaim Social Justice on October 31. A explained that she had been studying to become a doctor in the Philippines for years and was about to complete her studies but was unable to claim her medical licence.

A revealed that several educational service agencies deceived her into enrolling at a university with an expired certification from the Medical Council of Thailand, thereby preventing all Thai students there from obtaining their medical licences.

The agencies promised to secure the licences for them but only if they paid 30,000 baht, double the legitimate fee of 15,000 baht set by the Medical Council.

A and 20 other medical students refused to pay the inflated price but nine students agreed to pay. The agencies then created counterfeit documents for them and they already received their licences.

A disclosed that she intends to submit a complaint to the Medical Council of Thailand, suspecting that the council may be able to help them. She also wants to know whether the officials involved are corrupt because the document is clearly fake.

The vice president of the foundation, Raphatsit Pattarasirichaisin, told Channel 7 that he would bring the matter to the Medical Council of Thailand and would also check whether the university in the Philippines where A and the others studied was certified or not.

Raphatsit stated that medical professionals are significant in their careers and should be certified based on their skills, not on money, as patient safety is the top priority.

In a related report about corruption among Thai officials, nine police officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) were found to be involved in an extortion attempt of 300 million baht from a foreign couple living near Bangkok.

Six of the nine police officers were arrested before being released on bail. They all denied the accusations and planned to draft an official document to prove their innocence.