Why can't the Embassy vaccinate British people in Thailand?

[theoldgit]

18 minutes ago, Tony M said:

I'm hoping that the Embassy might respond, as they must have some awareness of the expat community's frustration (especially as we see France actually doing something for their tax-paying, albeit overseas, citizens).  

 

The French don't seem to be wasting any time, their citizens are now able to register via the Bangkok Hospital Group and I'm advised that they started vaccinations today locally. 

 

Comment puis-je obtenir un passeport français ?

 

https://form.jotform.com/211522249844455 

 

 

[Tony M]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

 

The French don't seem to be wasting any time, their citizens are now able to register via the Bangkok Hospital Group and I'm advised that they started vaccinations today locally. 

 

Comment puis-je obtenir un passeport français ?

 

https://form.jotform.com/211522249844455 

 

 

 

The British govt has taken Marie Antoinette's words (allegedly spoken when there was no bread available for the peasants) to heart - "Let them eat cake".

[Eff1n2ret]

2 hours ago, theoldgit said:

Comment puis-je obtenir un passeport français ?

You could try the KaoSan Road. I remember once seeing a French i/d card on a stall there. It wouldn't have fooled anyone who's been on a forgery course, but I would fancy my chances at the Bangkok-Rayong Hospital.

[Tony M]

1 minute ago, Eff1n2ret said:

You could try the KaoSan Road. I remember once seeing a French i/d card on a stall there. It wouldn't have fooled anyone who's been on a forgery course, but I would fancy my chances at the Bangkok-Rayong Hospital.

 

Bonne idee, mon vieux. 

[puchooay]

20 hours ago, Tony M said:

So you're quoting a post from 6 weeks ago ?   Things have moved on.  So are you saying that you don't know anyone who has not been able to register ?  We know that some ex-pats have been able to register. What's your point ?  And, what vaccine did you get ?

I didn't check the date of the post I quoted. My point was that a Thai ID number has not been required in cases I know of expats registering. That was my point.

 

I've had 2 doses of Astra Zeneca.

 

 

[Guderian]

Can the Consular Team advise me if it's worth my while sending an e-mail to my MP back in the UK (I'm registered as an overseas voter), asking him to bring the issue of an almost complete absence of vaccines for British nationals living in Thailand to the attention of whichever minister is responsible, and requesting assistance? Or would I just be wasting my time?

Thanks.

[scubascuba3]

1 minute ago, Guderian said:

Can the Consular Team advise me if it's worth my while sending an e-mail to my MP back in the UK (I'm registered as an overseas voter), asking him to bring the issue of an almost complete absence of vaccines for British nationals living in Thailand to the attention of whichever minister is responsible, and requesting assistance? Or would I just be wasting my time?

Thanks.

It would be better to call Talk Radio in the UK, Mike Graham show 4-7pm Thai time, it would then get the publicity it deserves. Can text or email also but phoning might get the producer to highlight this issue to everyone

[KarenBravo]

2 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Can the Consular Team advise me if it's worth my while sending an e-mail to my MP back in the UK (I'm registered as an overseas voter), asking him to bring the issue of an almost complete absence of vaccines for British nationals living in Thailand to the attention of whichever minister is responsible, and requesting assistance? Or would I just be wasting my time?

Thanks.

 

One possible vote versus spending thousands of pounds of the taxpayers money.

I think I already know what your MP will do. What he says, maybe completely different, but talk is cheap.

[thonglorjimmy]

I'm sure the Consular teams are fully aware, and share the concerns of the British nationals living in Thailand and have forwarded those concerns to the FCDO policy makers in the UK.

 

It may well be that there are discussions going on between London and Thailand as there are between London and other countries around the globe where Brits are living.

 

I certainly wouldn't expect the British Ambassador, or his Consular Team, to provide a running commentry of discussions they may having with London or the Thai Government on this forum or any other social media platform. 

 

Yes, full marks to the French and Chinese Governments for thinking outside of the box with their initiative for securing a vaccine roll out for affected and concerned citizens, this was no doubt a Governement to Government world wide initiative, and whilst local teams were no doubt involved the the local plan it wasn't their decision to go ahead with it.

 

That said, I sincerly hope the UK Government, and others, will follow the excellent lead of the French and Chinese Governments in rolling out a similar programe for their citizens, it will certainly put a lot of very worried minds at rest, including mine, and maybe the Thai Government could then concentrate on vaccinating it's own citizens, certainly it would be a good use of our UK taxes that partly fund the NHS.

 

I agree that our concerns should be addressed centrally to the FCDO in London not the local staff, I'm sure Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, and Nigel Adams, the Minister of State for Asia, would be pleased to hear from us, with our concerns being added to those of our Diplomatic teams here in Thailand.  

[jayboy]

42 minutes ago, thonglorjimmy said:

That said, I sincerly hope the UK Government, and others, will follow the excellent lead of the French and Chinese Governments in rolling out a similar programe for their citizens, it will certainly put a lot of very worried minds at rest, including mine,

 

That would be ideal but realistically I don't think it will happen.The first step is for the British Government to accept there is a major problem here for the British community.There's an interesting message from the German Ambassador, essentially arriving at the same conclusion as the British , but the tone is entirely different because he clearly appreciates the gravity of the situation, the anguish of his fellow citizens and seems to be looking for solutions.I haven't detected similar urgency or empathy on the British side.The bulletins are pretty useless.

 

The recently departed Ambassador in my view did not act with sufficient vigour. He made high profile and much publicized farewell calls but failed to get anything other than bland assurances on equal treatment on vaccinations.To be fair to him it wasn't so clear at that stage how catastrophic the position would be - but the outline was clear enough.The way forward is intensive follow up at a high level.The lack of a quick visit by Dominic Raab who is in the region seems a missed opportunity.

[jak2002003]

Answer to OP.....

 

Can't / won't do it as the place is a useless, token effort from a government that does not care about it's citizens and won't spend any money or resources on them.

[scubascuba3]

The embassies not helping their citizens might as well close and go home, we wouldn't notice any difference

[brewsterbudgen]

11 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

The embassies not helping their citizens might as well close and go home, we wouldn't notice any difference

 

The main role of Embassies is not to help citizens; they are in countries mostly for political representation and trade.

[scubascuba3]

3 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

 

The main role of Embassies is not to help citizens; they are in countries mostly for political representation and trade.

yeah i think most of us realise that

[jayboy]

3 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

yeah i think most of us realise that

One of the functions of diplomatic missions is to look after the interests of British citizens in their host countries

[Guderian]

On 5/5/2021 at 7:06 PM, British Consular Team said:

As users of the forum will be aware, the NHS is rolling out the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme in the UK. However, as a residence-based system, it does not provide healthcare outside the UK so it can't offer vaccines to British people who live overseas, including in Thailand.

 

That's not relevant to our situation, nobody expects the NHS to provide us with anything out here in Thailand. The vaccine manufacturers have made it clear that they will only sell vaccines to governments, which is one reason why the Thai private hospitals have been unable to help us, they have to get the vaccines through the GPO, they can't just call Pfizer or AZ and buy them. 

 

It's the same in the UK, Kate Bingham, on behalf of the UK government, led the vaccine task force that was so successful in securing early supplies for the UK. The government purchases the vaccines on behalf of the NHS, so they could easily allocate some of them to be sent out here to vaccinate, say, all British nationals over the age of 55 or 60, and the NHS need never get involved. Personally, I thought the big stumbling block on this road would be the Thai government's legendary intransigence when it comes to flexibility and quickly adjusting the rules, but the French have sorted that out somehow and I can see no reason why the UK couldn't follow suit if it wanted to.

 

It should also be stressed to the people in positions of power that British expats here don't expect a free lunch and we're perfectly prepared to pay for our shots, if the British government can only see its way to sending them out here. The vaccines typically cost between $10 and $20 a time, say 300 to 600 Baht, but we'd mostly be quite happy to pay 2,000 Baht, or even more, for a shot, so the whole process needn't cost HMG anything other than a bit of time and flexibility. The French and even the Thai governments have led the way, does Boris really want us to start writing to the likes of the Sun and the Daily Mail about how his hard-hearted government is, content to let thousands of seriously clinically-vulnerable British pensioners take their chances with dying from Covid in Thailand, when sending a relatively tiny number of vials of vaccine would probably save many lives but he refuses to countenance it?

 

The final point I should like to make in this regard is that many, if not most of us, still pay UK taxes on our pensions and investments. It's our taxes that have helped, in their own small way, to fund the UK government's successful vaccination programme, and it's hard to imagine how callous and mean-spirited somebody would need to be to claim that we don't deserve them simply because we chose to live in a far-off land when we helped pay for the blessed things.

[puchooay]

No one appears to have mentioned the logistics of what they are demanding the British Embassy to do.

 

Let's say they agree to vaccinate the British population of Thailand. They then ask British expats to travel to Bangkok to receive the jab. Then there will be complaints from expats saying they don't, can't, shouldn't have to travel to receive the jab and that the embassy should set up local stations. Then there will be those that feel their local station is not local enough. It will go on and on and on and......

 

Much better for the British Embassy to lean on the Thai government to facilitate vaccinating expats. Something I believe they have already done.

[Guderian]

12 minutes ago, puchooay said:

Let's say they agree to vaccinate the British population of Thailand. They then ask British expats to travel to Bangkok to receive the jab.

 

Why don't you look at how the French are arranging things, they can get their vaccines at Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya, as well as a number of other hospitals around the country, there's no need to go to Bangkok. The logistics are trivial, in fact, as long as the UK government wishes to help us and Thai government agrees. Anutin has said they won't stand in the way, so the only obstacle is the will of the UK government to help its people stuck in a country that is actively discriminating against them in terms of vaccine distribution. It should be a no-brainer.

[puchooay]

12 minutes ago, Guderian said:

 

Why don't you look at how the French are arranging things, they can get their vaccines at Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya, as well as a number of other hospitals around the country, there's no need to go to Bangkok. The logistics are trivial, in fact, as long as the UK government wishes to help us and Thai government agrees. Anutin has said they won't stand in the way, so the only obstacle is the will of the UK government to help its people stuck in a country that is actively discriminating against them in terms of vaccine distribution. It should be a no-brainer.

OK. Good post. Firstly, my comment about Bangkok was rhetorical. I did also point out that there would likely be other places.

 

Please list the hospitals that the French are using. I bet I would still need a 200kms+ round trip from my home.

 

Whereas, if the British embassy leant on the Thai government to vaccinate expats, I would only need to travel about 10kms.

 

For me that is not really an issue. I know for a fact that many expats would be up in arms about travelling 200kms+.

 

 

[Guderian]

1 minute ago, puchooay said:

Whereas, if the British embassy leant on the Thai government to vaccinate expats,

 

I think the British government has relatively limited influence in the halls of power in Thailand. America or China certainly have enough sway to get their own way, but one has already done it and the other has said it's not interested. HMG would probably be better off spending its small political capital in Thailand fighting for less contentious objectives than getting the Thai government to agree to vaccinate old foreign devils ahead of a lot of its own population. The UK is still vaccinating 300,000 to 400,000 people a day, and they're down to jabbing teenagers in some places. How can that possibly make sense to anybody with an ounce of compassion when they're leaving 80-year olds out here to just take their chances? I don't know how many Brits over the age of 55 or 60 there are living here, Wiki says around 86,000 in total but how many of them are younger folk who own bars and clubs, or are teachers? Whatever, it's clear that a fraction of a single day's supply in the UK would sort things out here.

[puchooay]

14 minutes ago, Guderian said:

 

I think the British government has relatively limited influence in the halls of power in Thailand. America or China certainly have enough sway to get their own way, but one has already done it and the other has said it's not interested. HMG would probably be better off spending its small political capital in Thailand fighting for less contentious objectives than getting the Thai government to agree to vaccinate old foreign devils ahead of a lot of its own population. The UK is still vaccinating 300,000 to 400,000 people a day, and they're down to jabbing teenagers in some places. How can that possibly make sense to anybody with an ounce of compassion when they're leaving 80-year olds out here to just take their chances? I don't know how many Brits over the age of 55 or 60 there are living here, Wiki says around 86,000 in total but how many of them are younger folk who own bars and clubs, or are teachers? Whatever, it's clear that a fraction of a single day's supply in the UK would sort things out here.

I agree but the logistics is still an issue. How many personnel would they need? How about travelling in and out of red zones? How long would they open each vaccination centre? There would be some that would want it all. The right place, the right time, the right date, the right vaccine........on and on.

 

 

[placnx]

4 hours ago, puchooay said:

No one appears to have mentioned the logistics of what they are demanding the British Embassy to do.

 

Let's say they agree to vaccinate the British population of Thailand. They then ask British expats to travel to Bangkok to receive the jab. Then there will be complaints from expats saying they don't, can't, shouldn't have to travel to receive the jab and that the embassy should set up local stations. Then there will be those that feel their local station is not local enough. It will go on and on and on and......

 

Much better for the British Embassy to lean on the Thai government to facilitate vaccinating expats. Something I believe they have already done.

Maybe you should ask your French colleagues how to go about making the jabs available in hospitals in eight cities in Thailand.

[jayboy]

3 hours ago, puchooay said:

I know for a fact that many expats would be up in arms about travelling 200kms+.

 

Then they are ungrateful fools.

[puchooay]

47 minutes ago, placnx said:

Maybe you should ask your French colleagues how to go about making the jabs available in hospitals in eight cities in Thailand.

8 cities? Wow. 8 out of 76. Like I said before, it just leads to the next post of " Why won't British Embassy vaccinate in my hometown?"

[puchooay]

44 minutes ago, jayboy said:

 

Then they are ungrateful fools.

Indeed but we know they are here. Just read this thread.

[fulhamster]

Could we have some kind of response or update fron the Consular section please ??

[Thailand]

 

[Tony M]

23 hours ago, fulhamster said:

Could we have some kind of response or update fron the Consular section please ??

Haha.  As some of the very few in Thailand to be fully vaccinated, they have probably gone somewhere nice for the weekend, without a care in the world. 

[rbkk]

Perhaps they need to sub-contract the French or Chinese to help with the logistics. It's embarrasing to be British at the moment. 

[MRToMRT]

The vaccination programme in the UK is still ongoing and has been for months (8 I think?). In Thailand it's been going for 3? It may be slower here but its ongoing. That's one of the things we have to accept living in a developing nation.

 

I am a Brit (in Bangkok) and have received my first dose of AZ from the Thai system free of charge and the majority of my fellow Brit friends here have too. To continue to say the Thais refuse to vaccinate foreigners until Thais are vaccinated is simply a lie. The UK did not vaccinate everyone overnight, indeed it's still vaccinating those at home, so why would we expect Thailand to?