Doctor to opposition leader: “Where were you when rockets struck hospitals?”

Opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, was taken to task today by a paediatric pulmonologist at Sunpasitthiprasong Hospital in Ubon Ratchathani, over his accusation that the hospital has refused to treat Cambodian patients.

The hospital’s Dr Piensak Saewong wrote in his Facebook post today that the hospital has a 90-year history of treating patients in the lower the northeast, since about 50 years before Natthaphong was born.

Dr Piensak Saewong

If the hospital is to learn about humanitarianism, as suggested by Natthaphong, the doctor suggested that the People’s party leader should, instead, visit the hospital and come into contact with the patients “without having to read from the textbooks and choose beautiful wording for your rhetoric”.

During the fierce fighting last week, between Thai and Cambodian forces, he said the hospital had to make some adjustments for the safety of the patients, both Thai and Cambodian, about 4,000 medical personnel and about 10,000 people who visit the hospital on daily basis.

He asked where Natthaphong was when rockets and artillery shells were raining into several Thai provinces, hitting hospitals and killing eight people at a gas station in Kantharalak district of Si Sa Ket, and displacing tens of thousands of people.

The doctor said that it would be better that the People’s party leader not say anything, if doing so does not help, adding that he holds no personal grudge against Natthaphong.