Emergency Planning: Medication, Records and What to Carry

Carry an emergency card

A wallet-sized card with your name, nationality, blood type if known, allergies, key medical notes, insurance policy number and emergency contact. In Thai as well as English if you can manage it.

Medication

• Bring a letter from your doctor listing generic drug names and doses — brand names differ between countries.
• Check whether anything you take is controlled in Thailand before you fly with it.
• Find a pharmacy that stocks your medication regularly, and ask what happens if there is a supply gap.
• Never let your supply fall below a month, particularly for anything cardiac or for diabetes.

Records and contacts

• Keep a summary of your medical history, in English, that you can hand to a doctor.
• Store scanned records securely online so you can reach them from anywhere.
• Give a trusted neighbour or friend a key, your emergency contact and your insurer's number.
• Make sure someone at home knows who to contact in Thailand, and vice versa.
• Register with your embassy's notification service if one exists for your nationality.

The uncomfortable paragraph

Have a will covering your Thai assets, and make sure someone knows where it is. Consider what would happen to a lease, a bank account and a condo if you were suddenly not there. It is a grim hour's work and it spares people who care about you a great deal of difficulty.