# Help needed in Pattaya



## Caroleuk

Hi there, forgive my intrusion as I am not an expat, but my father is and lives in Pattaya - he's been there about 18 years now and is in his early 70's.

I am trying to find an English person living in Pattaya who can help, he has been very ill recently and in hospital, but was released last Friday, however we have had a call from the Thai lady who looks after him to say he needs to go back to hospital, but she needs money as the hospital won't accept him without pre payment this time because it was a lot of hassle getting the payment made last time. When we tried to speak to him he wasn't making much sense and it is nearly impossible for us to have a conversation with the Thai lady, so we are looking into how we can get power of attorney to transfer some of his money, but I don't think that is going to be very straight forward. The problems are that we don't really know what accounts he has and how much he has in them to pay for any more hospital stays. Also he was in the Bangkok Pattaya hospital and the last bill was around £6,000 which was very expensive, so we wanted to know if he can just go in the local government hospital or not and how much it would be?

We have had to involve the British Embassy in Thailand to try and help us, but they can't or won't send someone to see him, so I am trying this forum to see if anyone actually knows him and might be able to go and see him to try and establish a bit more information for us! His name is David Ward and he lives at Diana Estates.

If anyone knows him or might be able to help, please message me back. 

Thank you

Carole


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## Guest

Hi Carole. Sorry to hear about your problem.

I'll send you a PM (private message) with some suggestions in a while.


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## Guest

One other thing I would *definitely *not entrust anyone that I don't know, Thai or English, with 6,000 sterling in Pattaya. You need to speak to the hospital directly - there should be an English speaker there.

There is no such thing as a free government health service in Thailand, hospitals all have varying scales of fees. Some are cheaper than others.

You don't know if he had any kind of health insurance? Not easy to get at that age in Thailand, so possibly not.


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## Caroleuk

Hi Pete thanks for your replies. We don't think he has any health insurance but we are not really sure! The last hospital bill (£6,000) we managed to get his bank to pay directly to the hospital so that was OK, but the problem now is the hospital won't take him back without payment up front so we don't think we will be able to get the bank to do that! I was just thinking maybe the government hospital will be a lot cheaper than the private one he was in before. Its all in all a real nightmare when we can't actually get any sense from him either. Look forward to hearing from you more, by the way how do you PM someone I wanted to write to someone else who posts a lot but can't work out how to do it! Carole


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## Guest

I'm trying to arrange to get your PM system working but there's a stop on this until you reach 5 posts to avoid spammers. The admin isn't online at the moment, when he is he will enable PMs.


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## King Silk

Contact Barry Kenyon Hon Consul British Embassy Pattaya ASAP!

[email protected]

Good Luck.


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## Guest

Thanks KS, message passed, hopefully though last night we managed to find some English-speaking contacts that Carole could use at certain slightly cheaper hospitals (Phayathai hospital in Sriracha, Queen Sirikit Hospital in Satahip, and then of course there is always the public hospital in Naklua, the Banglamung Hospital, if money is really short).


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## Caroleuk

Pete thanks again will email you separately.

King Silk we have been speaking to a guy called Dick Rowe at the British Embassy, but not sure if that is in Bangkok or Pattaya?! They have helped a bit in making some calls to the Thai lady who is helping out in all this, but that's all really. Do you think this other guy will be more helpful? I will email him today and try and phone some of these other hospitals to see if they will take him without pre payment!

Carole


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## Guest

Glad able to help out, hope it all goes well


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## King Silk

Barry is a good guy and works for the Embassy here in Pattaya.
I feel sure he will help you Luv.
Praying for your Papa........


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## Caroleuk

Thanks King Silk. I managed to get in touch with Barry, however, as we had already been in contact with the embassy in Bangkok we had to go back through the authorities first before he would do anything, as we hadn't followed the correct procedure! He did eventually get a Thai person to speak to the Thai lady who is supposedly caring for my Dad, but now we are suspicious she is possibly not looking after him very well and she has access to his bank account information, so we are trying to find out what is going on there as she is saying there is no money when there should be. She said he is ill and neeeds to go back to hospital. My sister managed to find someone (Thai living in UK) to call this Thai lady too and things just don't seem to add up really. All in all its a nightmare and as neither myself or my sister are able to get over there at the moment, dealing with it from a distance is so difficult. We feel like we are going round in circles and getting nowhere fast! We are still battling to find a hospital to take him, as they want money up front and the only way we can get his bank to co operate is if they pay the hospital directly on production of a bill on their paper.  I am in contact with Gavin Waddell at the Pyathai Hospital and hopefully we will be able to get him in there as I got the bank to write me an email to confirm they will pay the hospital directly, but with the time difference and weekend we still haven't got an answer from them.

What we really need is someone to visit our father to check on the situation as we are now not sure we are getting the true facts from the Thai lady, so I am going to contact the embassy again and beg them to send someone to visit him, as we can't get much sense from him on the phone either.

Anyone else over there, if you are alone in Thailand and have family back here or another country, please sort our medical insurance and let your family know your bank details and an emergency contact etc so that if they have to deal with a situation like this, it is much less stressful than this is for us!

Carole


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## King Silk

Oh Dear! One should NEVER give a so called Thai Lady access to ones Bank account!
You can bet your bottom Dollar she has nicked all his money!
If you give me all the details I will go to see him for you. PM me asap.....
No promises but I will see what I can do to find out the truth about his money at least.


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## King Silk

Carol!
I have replied to your PM but it doesnt look as if it has gone? 
I have to know if Diana Estates is in Soi Diana?
David


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## King Silk

To anyone concerned about Carol's Dad. It's under control now........


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## King Silk

King Silk said:


> To anyone concerned about Carol's Dad. It's under control now........


Well almost! I fear the Vultures are stealing his money wholesale!


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## gleeglee

frogblogger said:


> I'm trying to arrange to get your PM system working but there's a stop on this until you reach 5 posts to avoid spammers. The admin isn't online at the moment, when he is he will enable PMs.


the military hospital at satahip is a lot cheaper than Bangkok Pattaya Hospital which is very expensive.


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## Kanom

The Queen Sirkit Hospital in Sriracha seems his best bet. It is Navy run and efficient. I understand from previous experience the Embassy will offer little help. Frogblogger is correct in what he says. I am a British expat have been in Thailand 15 years and have 2 Companies. My father is of similar age and I sympathize with your predicament. I can meet with any contact in Pattaya and try to arrange help should you wish. One of my staff can be assigned to assist if required. *[Site urls deleted: moderator] *As was said before, DO NOT entrust anything to those you do not know without credentials. Mail through any of the websites to reach me should you wish.


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## Caroleuk

Thanks Kanom. Luckily things with Dad are much improved now, thanks to this forum! I found someone on here who has been extemely helpful in visiting Dad and organising help and we now have new ladies looking after Dad and he hasn't needed to go back into hospital for the moment. However, lots of people have recommended the Queen Sirikit hospital, so if he does have to go in again I think we would try to get him in there. Thanks to everyone who helped us out, it is much appreciated.

Best wishes

Carole


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## Kanom

*Caroles dad*



Caroleuk said:


> Thanks Kanom. Luckily things with Dad are much improved now, thanks to this forum! I found someone on here who has been extemely helpful in visiting Dad and organising help and we now have new ladies looking after Dad and he hasn't needed to go back into hospital for the moment. However, lots of people have recommended the Queen Sirikit hospital, so if he does have to go in again I think we would try to get him in there. Thanks to everyone who helped us out, it is much appreciated.
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Carole


I am very glad. Should there be anything in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes


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## Kanom

To the moderator, I apologize for adding my site URL's but in the circumstances I thought it would help.
Please contact me should you need to discuss further.


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