Next we walked our way to the main post office and picked up a parcel post restante. After marveling at the fact that it arrived at the post office in Bangkok only 3 days after being posted in Northern Ireland we sought out the ancient public telephones nearby. We are, or at least I am, risk reducers. I like risk, but I also like to have some knowledge and even control over the level of risk I am taking. So, when we planned our trip, we took all the necessary precautions in terms of our health and got jabbed up to our eyeballs with anti-everything. After four months of travelling, we were sent a letter by the NHS kindly asking if we would return to the clinic to have one of our jabs re-administered as the drug company had recalled the batch of injections we had had due to it not providing sufficient protection. We felt it a little unusual that, since the NHS had on our medical records that we were away for a full year after getting our injections, that they felt a casual letter to an address we weren't at was sufficient communication. After much deliberation and quite a few phone calls to the clinic at home we decided we were best to get a further injection while away. Bangkok was the place to do it. We phoned around some of the nearby hospitals until we found one which stocked the vaccine we needed. What followed was something so far from any NHS experience that it was actually quite a treat! (I must counter before I move on that I honestly love the NHS. I genuinely think that we haven't a clue how fortunate we are to have a health system that is available to us no matter what goes wrong and that our treatment options are not, like many countries on this earth, determined by the size of the cheque we can write.) However....
What was so different?
After locating a hospital which had our vaccine in stock I asked if we could make an appointment. “When would you like to come in?” I was asked....”eh, today?” I offered very hopefully. “Yes, and what time would suit you?”....”Would 30 minutes time be ok?” ...”Certainly, that is your appointment made, when you arrive please go to the registration desk.” Eh, ok! That was, well easy!
We took a taxi, and smoothly drew up outside the hotel...oh sorry, I mean hospital, with it's glitzy signs and well tended bushes. Before we could say “we're here” the concierge staff had gently opened the taxi door and said “good morning”. As our taxi drove away and the next car drew up the driver passed his keys to concierge and strode in leaving the staff to worry about getting a parking spot, just like NHS hospitals...hahaha.
Inside the futuristic air conditioned building were beautiful desks behind which dainty staff clip clopped about handing new, slim, non dog eared and neatly marked manilla medical folders (NHS staff will appreciate these observations!) to one another. At the main reception desk we were gently directed towards “registration” and it felt more like I was joining an exclusive private health club than a hospital register. After a few moments of waiting we were presented with our new hospital cards, beautiful golden plastic cards bearing our names and the hospital contact numbers, then we were escorted to a waiting area for the international travel clinic. Here we were welcomed with smiles and “good morning”'s from the nurses, all looking about 27 and like a flash back to the 50's...dolled up to the nines with a proper wee paper nurses hats and all! Our bums barely had time to hit the well polished chrome seats before we were called in, early, for our appointment.
The clinic room looked nothing like an NHS clinic room. It was bright, well laid out, had soft sofa like seating, beautiful pictures on the walls and everything laid out in a precise and pristine manner. Our nurse slided a patient agreement form towards us to sign, declaring we were aware of the risks and side effects of the injection we were about to receive. That, considering she had told us zero about the side effects of the injection, and the fact that I had to suggest closing the clinic room door, means I cannot be unequivocally full of praise of this experience. But still, it was nice to be given bandages after that matched our oufits.
Of course one of the last differences between the NHS and this one off experience which none of us would like was being shown to the cashier at the end...although even in this I'll say that it was cheaper than what we had to pay on the NHS for the same thing! After ringing through our bill we headed back out where concierge called a taxi up for us and told the driver where to take us leaving us to simply sit back and relax, giggling at the differences in the healthcare experience we had just had and what we get at home.
Keeping on what we had started, on a very Bangkok day, we headed next to the malls. A taste of the urban parks that middle class Bangkokians frequently roam. I had a hair cut and we ate in the food court before heading back to our hostel via a big bad traffic jam.
Ah, time to sleep!
