Eff1n2ret

"Never say B 0 ll 0 cks to a witchdoctor"

I used OJAS's link on Monday and got an email yesterday confirming that I have not been sent a life certificate. If enough of us pester them, the penny might drop and they set up a system to check in online as the French and other countries do. A simple extension to the Government Gateway system shouldn't be too difficult.

I had the opposite at 8.17hrs on Sunday evening. Phone pinged, somebody took 659 Baht from my Kasikorn account. I phoned their switchboard immediately, got a recorded message that the number does not exist! On Monday morning when they'd switched the phones back on I spoke to their helpline, got the debit card cancelled and went to the local branch for a new one. In your case, if English is not your first language I can understand the problem of speaking to someone whose accent may be difficult to understand. I would suggest you enlist the help of someone who speaks Thai, or go to a branch and ask them to check what is going on. At least a payment into your account is not so worrying. I spent all Sunday night with my phone switched on in case there were further 'pings' from someone raiding my account. There weren't, and I got repaid the 659 baht. Had to pay 300 for another card, though.

Yes, fair enough, they confirmed a statement. As far as due diligence is concerned, that might have been beyond their capabilities, but they could have accepted our evidence and run spot checks if there was any doubt, such as calling for original documents. Indeed, early on I did supply original documents until it was confirmed that copies would do. But my point remains, I find such a lack of trust insulting, as most people are honest, and they could have verified our income from the evidence submitted if they had chosen to do so. Much easier, though, to withdraw a service.

Perhaps it's an internal airline thing. If the OP was on a return ticket to BKK they wanted to assure themselves that he wouldn't be a problem trying to come back

Which they used to, based on the documents proving their pensions and income supplied by those who required the service. I stand to be corrected, by the Consulate or anybody else, but it seems to me that this all blew up when the Thai authorities took objection to the practice of the US Embassy of issuing income letters based solely on a declaration of income with no proof supplied - which was obviously open to abuse. Our Brit representatives seized on this as an excuse to withdraw the service on the somewhat legalistic grounds that the documents we were supplying couldn't be verified, in other words, we might all be liars. It just shows the contempt they have for us, they didn't have to go that way, they could have maintained the service if they wanted to. They were charging enough for it. It's not a problem for me because a year or so before they stopped I had rearranged my finances to keep 800k in the bank. One of the reasons was that I objected to the fifty quid charge they made for bringing up a template and adding in my details, which must have taken all of 10 minutes.

The NHS website which you linked also says this:- "Treatment for tuberculosis (TB) usually involves taking antibiotics for several months. While TB is a serious condition that can be fatal if left untreated, deaths are rare if treatment is completed. Most people do not need to be admitted to hospital during treatment. "(my italics) NHS treatment of any sort by a GP or at A&E is free to all, it is only if you are admitted as an in-patient that the question of payment by non- UK residents arises. Therefore it seems very unlikely that the OP would be required to pay, both because it's TB, and because he might not need in-patient treatment. Having said that, the cost of air travel and possibly other UK expenses would pay for a lot of antibiotics in Thailand, get treated at a good hsopital. If you fly to UK and rock up to A&E they will examine you and patch up any immediate damage. If it's some chronic complaint they will tell you to go to your GP who will refer you to a consultant for ongoing treatment. A neighbour had a knee problem and went back to England and A&E. "Go and see your GP", they said. "Haven't got one" he said, and came back to Thailand. There are many of us who are no longer registered with a GP in the UK, and by all accounts, getting to see one these days isn't easy.

Ah yes, I kept pushing the little blighter back in, and out it would pop again. I didn't much bother until it became painful, and the doc said it was infected. Best to have it seen to.

Sorry, haven't a clue. Those were definitely the costs, but I couldn't see what the doc was doing behind the sheet, and didn't want to. I don't know what else to add.

I would assume so, given the discrepancy with the other treatments quoted. From memory I had a few stitches, but it's just a distant memory, it didn't cause me much pain and healed up quickly.

I have gone back through my credit card statements, and in addition to the 8800 baht previously mentioned, have found another charge for 65,000 baht, so the total cost amounted to 74k Baht. Sorry for previous misleading info.

Humble apologies. Upon re-examining that invoice it was for various examinations and treatment prior to the op. Annoyingly, I can't find the invoice for the op itself, but it was nothing like the amounts quoted in other posts. I also don't remember anything about a mesh implant, I thought the surgeon just removed the offending blob, which had become painful because of infection, sewed me up and told me to take it easy for a few weeks. It's been fine ever since.

Yes, I'm one of those. Age and pre-existing conditions disqualify me anyway, but my view was coloured a good few years ago by a casual acquaintance who came into the bar one day with a foot heavily bandaged. He was coming to say goodbye, he was going back to England, having spent all his resources on an operation to remove a big toe which had turned septic, caused by diabetes, and would probably require further surgery. His insurance company refused to cover his costs because he had not declared a pre-existing condition. "I paid in to them for years and years," he said, "I never knew I had diabetes."

I had this op at Bangkok Rayong Hospital nearly 4 years ago. The invoice for surgery was 8,800 baht, total amount spent for medication and pre- and post consultations about another 3,300 baht. I had it done on a local anaesthetic and required only a couple of hours lie-down before they let me go home.

If you have your Thai Ministry of Health vaccination certificate and your passenger locator form you should be able to board your plane to the UK Assuming you are a British citizen, plenty of people have posted that on arrival in the UK they go through the E-gates with their passport and are not required to produce any other documents to anyone. Good luck with that. I can't see anything on the NHS website which suggests that their app registers any vaccines other than those given by the NHS (except for British Overseas Territories, Military and Diplomatic personnel etc).

It's good that they give you that option

Whether or not that is the case, naming on a public forum establishments which take an enlightened attitude to requests from trusted regular customers isn't very helpful. In these troubled times outsiders like the OP will have to take their chances. Strangely enough a few of us were having a noggin yesterday evening when the staff said that the police had telephoned to announce that they would be dropping by in 10 minutes, and we were hastily served with soft drinks. The fuzz didn't show up.

They're entry stamps noting the date of your arrival and granting 30 days in the country, given by the Immigration Officer at passport control. Certain nationalities can't get on the plane to Thailand without a visa. A few nationalities who need a visa are allowed to get it on arrival, at a 'Visa on arrival' desk before the ramp up to passport control (at Suvarnabhumi at least). They then have to present themselves to passport control. I bet you've never had to go to the Visa on Arrival desk. The OP must be sorry he asked.

MedPark filled in and stamped the yellow International booklet I got from amazon. I don't expect I'll ever need to show it to anybody, I've got the MorPhrom app.

Well done indeed. It just shows up the anal retentive attitude of the British Passport Office that they can't bring themselves to adopt a similar system. Yes, all 48 colour photocopied pages. What a pain.

You miss the point. I accept, and have done for several years, that at my age and with some (mild) pre-existing conditions, I am effectively uninsurable. I have no confidence that an expensive policy that purports to cover the risks you mention would be honoured by the insurance company, so I prefer to spend as little as possible to satisfy the Pass requirement.

Yes. It shows that you are legally in Thailand and Thai Immigration has accepted your passport is genuine. They're not interested in your actual address, they're not going to post anything to you.

FINALLY: The Insurance We've Been Looking For - COVID-19 Coronavirus - ASEAN NOW - News, Travel & Forum He actually stated $57. I haven't followed it through because I'm not in a position to travel at the moment. The insurance may be worthless, but if it ticks the right box for the Thailand Pass, that's all I would be worried about.

In the interests of clarification I went on to the website previously quoted and followed the application all the way through to 'pay and submit'. There was no request to declare any pre-existing conditions or treatment. Unsurprisingly, however, the "terms and conditions" on their home page do state that pre-existing conditions are not covered. That does not mean that the insurance is "unavailable", it just means that the cover would be limited, but you would have a policy which you could presumably use for the Thailand Pass..... ....except that their small print on the payment page says it's a travel policy, not health insurance:- I understand that the insurance applied for is not a general health insurance policy, but is intended for use in the event of a sudden and unexpected event while traveling outside my Home Country. I understand that my insurance terminates upon my return to my Home Country I was reading another thread where the OP, like myself, is not interested in health insurance, he found a policy for approx $50 to get through the Thailand Pass requirement. That sounds a far better bet than the above policy - I'm sure they won't mind taking $50 from a 77-year-old.

Will the increase in your pension cover the iniquitous council tax, or will said tax swallow a chunk of your pension?