The Medical Council has postponed its decision on whether doctors who treated former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra at the Police General Hospital (PGH) violated ethical standards after a probe committee received additional documents about the case.
The decision, originally scheduled for April 10, has been pushed back without a new date set. The delay has sparked criticism about a possible attempt to stall the process.
In its statement, the council's board said the committee received extra information from the PGH and the Department of Corrections (DoC) on March 31 and April 1, respectively.
Due to the large volume of documents, it needs more time to review them, thus the findings will not be concluded and submitted to the council on Thursday as planned, it said.
Prof Dr Amorn Leelarasamee, who heads the probe committee, acknowledged concerns over the delay. When asked if this was a stalling tactic, he said the committee is obliged to be thorough and will complete the work as soon as possible.
"The documents we had are adequate, but these new records might help confirm certain details. I need to go through them carefully, and that takes time," he said.
As part of the probe into the ethics of the doctors who treated Thaksin, the inquiry committee demanded that both the PGH and the DoC hand over documents related to his extended stay.
It demanded full details of Thaksin's admission, diagnosis and treatment, as well as the names of all those who treated him.
Thaksin, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for three cases before royal clemency cut his term to one year, spent all of his jail term in a ward on the 14th floor of the hospital.
After about six months, he was paroled and discharged from the PGH on Feb 18, with the former prime minister officially completing his one-year prison term on Aug 31.
Former senator Somchai Sawangkarn yesterday questioned if the probe delay was intentional.
On his Facebook account, he relayed concerns raised by a former member of the Medical Council claiming the documents were submitted late to buy more time. He warned that the credibility of the medical profession could be at risk.
"I still believe in the Medical Council, but the reports I'm hearing are troubling. If the matter isn't handled properly, faith in the Medical Council could crumble ... just like the collapse of the State Audit Office building," he wrote.
