Wat Dhammakaya will not allow doctors from Police General Hospital to be brought by the Department of Special Investigation to examine the health conditions of Phra Dhammachayo, said Mr Ong-art Thamnitha, spokesman of the monk’s followers, on Friday.
He noted that had the DSI made this proposal some time ago, the embattled abbot should have been examined and the conflict over the health conditions of Dhammachayo should have been settled.
As for the specialists to be sent to the temple by the Medical Council, Ong-art said that the doctors treating Dhammachayo would vet the specialists whether any of them would be allowed into the temple.
The spokesman said followers did not trust the DSI for its hostile attitude toward their abbot, citing the DSI’s request for 600 policemen and helicopters from the Royal Thai Police in a planned raid of the temple to seize Dhammachayo.
He also cited an incident 14 years ago when Dhammchayo was escorted from the temple to the Pole General Hospital for examination only to return to the temple in worse health condition which required him to be hospitalized for a month and three months of rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, Dr Somsak Lolekha, president of the Medical Council, said the council was in the process of formally notifying the temple that a team of specialists would be sent to the temple to examine their abbot on June 10.
He said that the council would ask for a consent from Dhammachayo to check his conditions and to allow the council to disclose the result of the examination.
