Online appeal launched to fly home elderly British man taken seriously ill in Korat

[Saltire]

Have been on here 3 years and managed to live with just 2 on ignore.

 

This will double exponentially today.

 

 

[Excel]

Just now, Saltire said:

Have been on here 3 years and managed to live with just 2 on ignore.

 

This will double exponentially today.

 

 

Know what you mean. Just when you think the sun is coming out, it clouds over again

[puchooay]

5 minutes ago, Saltire said:

In his case, yes of course, as a general rule, no.

There was a census done in the recent past in UK.

 

All doctors surgeries sent letters out to all registered patients at their registered address.

 

I think this was in 2012 but can't be sure.

 

At that time I was abroad so did not reply to the letter. I was struck off of the register. At the same time my brother had moved several times, within the UK, so he too did not reply to the letter and struck off. 

 

This was done as it appeared many practices were claiming the allowance from the NHS for registered patients that were never attending the practice.

 

When I returned to UK and decided I should register with a doctor my brother decided to also. The forms that we needed to complete were identical. We needed to show past doctor's address and our current address. That was it.

 

No questions of where we had been or for how long or how long we would be staying where we are.

 

So, it appears there is a general rule when registering with NHS.

Edited June 19, 2021 by puchooay

[puchooay]

9 minutes ago, Saltire said:

Have been on here 3 years and managed to live with just 2 on ignore.

 

This will double exponentially today.

 

 

Why ignore? Why not read and learn?

 

I've been on here 12 years. No "ignores". But then I am not a snowflake.????????????

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by puchooay

[scubascuba3]

4 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

.......and that's the result of "self-insuring".

Clearly money is required if self insuring but only yesterday I was chatting to a lawyer friend of mine representing a guy whos big insurance claim was denied, so people shouldn't feel confident their claims will be covered

[The Fugitive]

20 minutes ago, giddyup said:

A rail connection between Singapore and the UK?

Apparently yes. It is/was the longest possible rail journey. No idea how many separate tickets and changes of trains you would have to make, or the total cost of the journey. But it is possible. 

[Excel]

1 minute ago, The Fugitive said:

Apparently yes. It is/was the longest possible rail journey. No idea how many separate tickets and changes of trains you would have to make, or the total cost of the journey. But it is possible. 

Hardly a good idea for a critically ill patient would you think ? Notwithstanding the medical equipment and supplies that would be necessary for such a long journey. 

[MRToMRT]

3 hours ago, Henryford said:

especially for 80,000

My assumption is that is for the medivac flight and attendee nurse and doctor. As a stroke patient he cannot fly commercial for about 6 months and then only in consultation with his doctors. When he is well enough to travel he can fly commercial.

 

[The Fugitive]

9 minutes ago, Excel said:

Hardly a good idea for a critically ill patient would you think ? Notwithstanding the medical equipment and supplies that would be necessary for such a long journey. 

Not good. Other than by ship as already suggested, it is possible to drive. That would be an endurance test too. But it may be possible to make the entire journey in one appropriately equipped vehicle? 

[perconrad]

3 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

 

I see all the self insurers are coming out in force.

What's wrong with self insurance?

 

When you get old, if you do, the premium will be so high that not many pensioners are able to pay it.

 

I stopped my health insurance at 64 and instead put the premium in a separat bank account and now at 74 the account holds almost 2 mill THB.

[KarenBravo]

3 minutes ago, perconrad said:

What's wrong with self insurance?

 

When you get old, if you do, the premium will be so high that not many pensioners are able to pay it.

 

I stopped my health insurance at 64 and instead put the premium in a separat bank account and now at 74 the account holds almost 2 mill THB.

 

Luck of the draw. You could have got sick and needed insurance at 65.

[RichardColeman]

2 hours ago, puchooay said:

Curious, he has been here for at least 18 months and yet has no issues with visa status. There must be some money around somewhere.

With the agents and with their 'connections' would be my guess

[bolt]

13 minutes ago, perconrad said:

What's wrong with self insurance?

 

When you get old, if you do, the premium will be so high that not many pensioners are able to pay it.

 

I stopped my health insurance at 64 and instead put the premium in a separat bank account and now at 74 the account holds almost 2 mill THB.

I see your point about annual renewal costs, have you set a limit to your insurance pot, 2-5-10-15 million THB

 

If you started saving since 64, now 74 that’s 120 months, with a pot of 2m that 16k per month, or 200k thb per year,

 

surely annual insurance is cheaper than 200k per year

Edited June 19, 2021 by bolt

[Andrew65]

4 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Tons of posts on keeping insurance current.

 

Good example how self-insuring can bankrupt a person.

 

No idea why people would spend their life working and move to Thailand without even 20K pounds?

 

When you get older, time is not your friend.

 

Sooner or later time catches up with everyone.

 

If you cannot afford knowing that time is coming for each of us, this is exactly what is going to happen.

 

No thanks, sorry to say, I am sure there are many more in the same situation or worse.

There was a story about a 56 year old British guy on Thai Visa a few months ago who was stuck in a similar way for the want of £10,000. I'd suggest that if he didn't have that much money, he couldn't really afford to be 'retired' in Thailand.

Being Brits, we're not so well versed in health insurance.

I know that once we reach 70 years old it can be hard (or impossible) to get.
Then there's pre-existing conditions.

Good luck to this guy BTW.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Andrew65

[puchooay]

2 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

With the agents and with their 'connections' would be my guess

If he were using agents for extensions, that would likely mean he does not have sufficient income or money in the back.

 

Couple that with not having health insurance...........well???

[Neeranam]

Why no mention of his family in Korat? 73 year old men don't go there alone(usually). 

[Old Croc]

5 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

.......and that's the result of "self-insuring".

More likely the result of smoking.

[Excel]

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Why no mention of his family in Korat? 73 year old men don't go there alone(usually). 

Well we don't know all his personal details but as we all know it would not be unusual if earlier he was acquainted to a lady he become fond of but later when money become scarce she moved on . Speculative true but not unusual. Likewise I know a person in my Amphur , to my knowledge never lived with anyone for the last 15 years, very bitter by past experiences and decided to spend the last years of his life on his own. We are all different.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Excel

[puchooay]

4 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Why no mention of his family in Korat? 73 year old men don't go there alone(usually). 

The article does state “he has a good circle of English friends out there helping us through this"

 

[Neeranam]

I would suggest guys here to work as an English teacher for one year and although the pay is not good, you can get into the Social Security. After  1 year, you can  continue to pay 432 baht a month for life for insurance. 

Although harder, you could get Permanent Residency to make things easier in your old age. 

 

[skorts]

3 hours ago, Denim said:

 

I think the 80,000 baht figure is misleading. This would be for a private jet with nursing staff all the way !!

 

He is shown sitting on a bed.  Could he also sit on a chair or a car seat ?

Could a couple of friends  not take care of the relevant paperwork ( covid check ) then drive him to the airport, get him in a wheelchair and push him to check in on a business class seat ( more room ). Airlines have staff that regularly take non walking passengers to the aircraft and get them seated ( I used to do this when working for BA )

 

I agree the above suggestion is only theoretical but surely the figure ( the very round figure ) represents flying home with the best of everything not just getting the poor man home. As soon as the flight landed in the UK he would be met by airline staff and taken through immigration ( done this hundreds of times for wheelchair bound passengers ) so a cheaper option must surely be possible.

 

When I worked for BA I often had to take such passengers right to the taxi rank and help them into a taxi !!

 

Where there is a will there is a way.

Clearly travelling without a medical team is down to medical assessment and acceptance by the airline. 
A friend of mine was escorted back to the U.K. on a commercial airline with a paramedic and a nurse who flew over to Bangkok from the U.K. to repatriate him. Cost was c£35,000. The airline removed several rows of seats from the plane to enable a stretcher to be accommodated. 
This was pre-COVID. 
The issue at the moment is lack of commercial flights although a lot of the flights that are operating are not full. 

Also, if a medical team is flying across from the U.K. then presumably they will have to do 14 days quarantine on arrival. 
The team that escorted my friend spent a couple of days in Bangkok as they had to liaise with the Thai medical/hospital teams and the airline and make sure everything was in order before the flight. 
14 day quarantine would add significantly to costs (ASQ costs plus medical team salaries) and would anyone from a repatriation team in the U.K. want to spend 14 days in quarantine before they can begin the process of repatriation?
Under these circumstances £80,000 might not be that unrealistic. 

 

[Neeranam]

5 minutes ago, Excel said:

Well we don't know all his personal details but as we all know it would not be unusual if earlier he was acquainted to a lady he become fond of but later when money become scarce she moved on . Speculative true but not unusual. Likewise I know a person in my Amphur , to my knowledge never lived with anyone for the last 15 years, very bitter by past experiences and decided to spend the last years of his life on his own. We are all different.

Well it's a risk he took, staying here with no money. 

 

Not a good idea acquainting ladies in Isarn if you are retired here. 

I've lived in Isarn for many years and I'd say 90% of the time, ends up in disaster. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Neeranam

[Neeranam]

2 minutes ago, puchooay said:

The article does state “he has a good circle of English friends out there helping us through this"

 

Ok, can't be that good if they can't chip in to send the poor guy home. Also, surely his kids have grown up and could get a bank loan instead of begging online. 

[Excel]

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

Well it's a risk he took, staying here with no money. 

 

Not a good idea acquainting ladies in Isarn if you are retired here. 

Now that is another assumption. We do not now whether , even if there was one, it was a lady from Isan do we ? Could be a man perhaps who knows, nor do we know that when he took that decision to stay he did have money but he has since been swindled out of it. We just don't know so it is unfair to make judgements based on stereotypical nonsense do you not think ?. 

[puchooay]

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

Ok, can't be that good if they can't chip in to send the poor guy home. Also, surely his kids have grown up and could get a bank loan instead of begging online. 

Did anyone say they haven't chipped in? It would take a lot of friends to raise 80k.

 

I agree about the kids. There are too many of these go fund me articles appearing. The guy took a gamble on his health and finances. He lost. Time for him and his family to face up to it and sort it out.

 

Using Covid19 as an excuse doesn't work.

[Confuscious]

4 hours ago, The Fugitive said:

I understand that it is possible to travel by rail between UK and Singapore (Singapore being the furthest continental land mass with a rail connection). 

 

Do you have any REAL information on this?

 

[youreavinalaff]

2 minutes ago, Excel said:

Now that is another assumption. We do not now whether , even if there was one, it was a lady from Isan do we ? Could be a man perhaps who knows, nor do we know that when he took that decision to stay he did have money but he has since been swindled out of it. We just don't know so it is unfair to make judgements based on stereotypical nonsense do you not think ?. 

Whether he had money or not. Whether he was swindled or not. The truth of the matter is that he knew he was uninsured. He knew that his personal funds would not cover an emergency. If he had no money then he knew that he would not be able to pass immigration requirements when Covid19 extensions cease. 

 

He knew he was in a whole lot of bother but still chose to stay. Then he got sick and now wants charity.

 

You make your bed, you lie in it.

[Scouse123]

40 minutes ago, perconrad said:

What's wrong with self insurance?

 

When you get old, if you do, the premium will be so high that not many pensioners are able to pay it.

 

I stopped my health insurance at 64 and instead put the premium in a separat bank account and now at 74 the account holds almost 2 mill THB.

 

And how many people do you honestly think would do that, and put their annual premiums in a separate bank account, no matter what their good intentions were to be to start with?

 

This mean and I am sorry for his predicament,  he has come to Thailand and deliberately extended his stay time and again thinking he is much safer here than in the UK and he was correct about that assumption previously.

 

However, he allowed his insurance to lapse. If he had holiday insurance he would be struggling anyway as nobody stays on holiday for 18 months leading probably to a rejection of any claim. He has taken a chance with a preexisting condition and it has backfired on him.

 

Various steps were open to him if he was going to reside in Thailand medium to long term, including Pacific Cross insurance of Thailand, Nomads insurance,  etc. He didn't take those steps.

 

Regards the British Embassy, why the hell should they burden the British taxpayer with these type of problems?

 

If this was going on around the world everywhere we have a British Embassy, every Tom , Dick and Harry would be travelling without insurance expecting the UK Embassy to look after them.

 

I am all for compulsory insurance for all expats residing in the Kingdom, whatever their visa or residence status, and it sounds very much like too many are here underfunded.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Scouse123

[Excel]

2 minutes ago, youreavinalaff said:

Whether he had money or not. Whether he was swindled or not. The truth of the matter is that he knew he was uninsured. He knew that his personal funds would not cover an emergency. If he had no money then he knew that he would not be able to pass immigration requirements when Covid19 extensions cease. 

 

He knew he was in a whole lot of bother but still chose to stay. Then he got sick and now wants charity.

 

You make your bed, you lie in it.

How sad of you.

[natway09]

Help would be at hand here in a Public Hospital or care unit at about the same price as his Brirish Pension & the care is very good.

I would try this option first until he is further recuperated