crazydrummerpauly

It is interesting that April 2010, the deadline for getting the extra uk pension payment for

a Thai dependent wife, is ALSO the date at which the hugely important change in the

minimum contributions rule comes in. From this April, a UK retiree needs only 30 Years

contributions in order to get a FULL State Pension - a massive shift from the 44 Years

which has long been the requirement. I wonder: did a civil-servant look at the books

and ponder: 'Now where can we make cuts to help pay for this hike in the Basic State

Pension from April 2010 - I KNOW - bring the shutters down on that ridiculous hand-out

to all those lucky buggers sunning themselves hand-in-hand with their work-shy/DEPENDENT

Thai wives !' ( NO, not my thoughts ! - just a bit of role-play.)

FIVE hours strenuous exercise after 1 pm in 38 degrees in a tropical country....

and you need to post a lengthy inquiry about why you got dehydration sickness ?

Seriously, are you really in the dark about this ? ( forget all the beer-related worries

unless you have been given a definite diagnosis of intolerance or liver-damage )...

Oh, and you are 1 year short of half a century on the planet.... come on, take it easy ?

And get OUT of the midday/pm sun, unless you want to celebrate Noel Coward's brilliant ditty.

Please, downplay the precautions of tea-addiction and h2o-consumption - AND the treadmill-torture -

just be MUCH more scared of that frightening flaming globe in the sky. (But I will admit:

I'm one of those wimps who sometimes uses a large UMBRELLA even to walk in the midday

sun ! ) Wish I could still play footie by the way....I'd be throwing up by half-time even

in an English winter !

Basically, the vomiting is most likely to be your body's reaction to its being treated to a toxin just

at the period when it's already struggling to cope with SEVERE dehydration and possibly sun-stroke.

I'm assuming that you can easily quaff a pint or two at the end of a lazy, cool day without a violent

reaction ? If you have access to a specialist, an 'Intolerance Test' for beer could put your mind at

rest on that front - but given the mix of variables you present on the posting, any gambling man would

put their shirt on severe dehydration and some degree of sun-stroke, rather than a problem with the

amber nectar.

Yup, told by my Thai girlfriend government teacher that all I had to do to get free health-treatment was marry her ! Oh that's alright then.

She is a sharp lady so that bit is gotta be correct as said above, but as to the finer points, about after retirement etc - I've tried researching

that in English and found it tough to get answers - if I do find something, I'll get back here. But really, the fastest way to find out this kind of

stuff is to go straight to a senior civil servant who will for personal reasons already know it all - like an elderly Headmaster maybe !

Yes, it is the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme, and Googling that title produces a whole bunch of detailed studies and reports, but I still couldn't find the answer to the important post-retirement question - it's back to the helpful Headmaster or Hospital Manager for me !

Best of luck.

This is my first posting, and i would not be surprised to be told that my query has been already dealt with on this forum, but i have not been able to find a comprehensive and definitive, up-to-date answer to my question.

Only recently i discovered the rule that denies free NHS treatment (excepting emergencies) to returning UK citizens who have been out of the UK for just 3 MONTHS. I do realise that in a day-to-day way, someone visiting their GP when back in the UK simply tells of a health problem, and the GP just gets on with it without inquiring as to where their registered patient has been since they last saw them...but that's not the legal situation as far as i can make out. I should say that as someone still in mild shock at learning about this unjust rule, i have a kind of Meldrew "I don't believe it" block to fully absorbing the facts. An updated memo from the UK Department of Health notes that discussions have been ongoing aimed at extending the allowed period away from 3 to 6 months - big deal. Given that any number of traveller-type websites recommend that ex-pats in a 'less-developed' country with a serious illness should always fly straight back to their home country for treament, the UK 3 or 6-month rule makes all that advice highly dubious for returning Brits ? Has anyone got a) the up-to-date legal position on this ? ; had real experience, or know of anyone who has had experience of being actually refused NHS treament because they were 'away' too long ? ; c) knowledge of whether it makes any difference if a Brit maintains a real Address in the UK whilst living abroad ? ; d) information about to what extent the various government agencies have or are planning to have a unified computer-system which would actually bring up one's travel dates on the screen that every GP now stares at during/instead of every consultation ?

To sum-up: just how SERIOUS is this, and how worried should Brits be ? ( or any other nationalities with free health service ).

Correction: Free ? If only - it is the idea that a person could pay into National Insurance for 45 years and then be denied NHS care after being abroad for only THREE MONTHS that takes my breath away....why isn't this a national scandal ?

Always end with a joke they say: It is precisely this tyrannical assault on our rights that pushes my blood pressure to a level that will require immediate repatriation to dear old Blighty where i can test my lying skills to avoid paying for the treatment i thought i had already paid for all my working life. Ha.