BANGKOK: Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division (CSD) officers inspected a care centre housing 92 patients in Kanchanaburi province on Oct 5, after a complainant alleged assault and confinement.
The owner showed officers a licence and maintained that the centre operated legally. The complainant told a well-known television programme that their son had taken them to the facility in Tha Muang district, where they alleged they were physically assaulted and held against their will.
CSD commander Pattanasak Bupphasuwan ordered officers from its Subdivision 5 to investigate the centre, which provides elderly care and care and rehabilitation for psychiatric patients.
The Kanchanaburi care centre’s owner presented a licence for police to examine and said it had most recently been renewed on Aug 3.
Addressing health-service licensing requirements, the owner said the facility required authorisation from the Public Health Ministry’s Regional Health Service Support Center 5 and underwent inspections and licence renewals every year.
The Kanchanaburi centre’s owner said rooms with steel bars were used only for psychiatric patients with severe symptoms. Explaining the arrangement, the owner cited frequent property damage, assaults and patients wandering around as reasons for using strong steel cages.
The Kanchanaburi centre’s owner claimed to have completed an air force nursing course and worked at a state hospital before quitting to join a private hospital in Kanchanaburi.
According to the owner, the Tha Muang centre opened at its present location around 2006.
In 2021, the business changed to a facility caring for elderly and dependent patients, including psychiatric patients and people recovering from illness, and had continued providing those services.
The Kanchanaburi centre had 19 care staff, comprising three men and 16 women, and housed 75 male and 17 female patients, according to the inspection details.
The owner led officers through the Kanchanaburi centre, where accommodation was divided into separate male and female sections. Police found single and shared air-conditioned rooms, as well as single rooms with fans, allocated according to patients’ conditions and care categories.
CSD investigators examining the Kanchanaburi complaint were seeking further information from the centre’s owner and collecting closed-circuit television footage from inside the centre, along with witness evidence, to establish the facts before deciding on further legal action. - The Nation/ANN
