Plans for Reopening after Covid-19 Coronavirus Crisis – Update 23 August2020

It’s been a long while since we have been able to give you an update on the situation about Covid-19 and its effect on our being able to start to schedule operations again, but over the past 3 months or so there has been no change that we have been able to report. During that period we hope that you have remained strong and healthy and have not been directly affected in any way by this disease.

Thailand’s own efforts to minimize the effects of the virus have been exceptionally effective. They are proud of their achievement, and are keen to ensure that they keep the disease under control and their citizens safe. Thailand has experienced fewer than 100 deaths since the epidemic started, and are now essentially fully open internally - but of course are aware that other nations have been less successful. Thailand’s economy relies heavily on tourism, so naturally they are eager to open up the country to visitors as quickly as they can, but they will not do so if they consider the risks of re-inflaming the Covid-19 in Thailand are too high.

The Thai government has recently issued guidelines for visitors wishing to come to Thailand for essential medical reasons. “Essential Medical Reasons” do not include elective or cosmetic procedures – which SRS and FFS are both considered to be. They also only apply to potential visitors from countries considered by the Thai government to be “safe”, which currently is an extremely small number, and excludes the home countries of the vast majority of all our potential clients.

So for now - we still are not yet able to reopen our doors to clients unfortunately. However, the movement to enabling patients to travel for essential operations is a very encouraging sign, and we are optimistic that we will be able to offer surgery again before too long – but as yet we simply don’t know exactly when that will be. We can say though that the administrative procedures that visitors traveling for Essential Medical Reasons are very restrictive and complex, and as they stand would be impractical to expect our clients to comply with even if they or we were allowed to do so. They would also involve the patient in having to pay a lot extra for testing and quarantining for a mandatory period before actual surgery. We do not want to impose those additional burdens on any of our clients, so we will be waiting longer before we are able to comply with any regulations the Thai government expects of us, and of any clients who wish to come for surgery with us.

Initially we can say for certain that we will be only able to accept clients whose operations will be done in hospital, where we have the facilities to monitor for Covid-19, and to quickly isolate if necessary. We anticipate we will not be able to accept clients for operations to be done in the Clinic rather than hospital until some while after we have proven the additional measure involved with doing operations in hospital, so there will be a further delay before we can accept clients for free Cosmetic Improvement procedures. We will however continue to honor the promise we made earlier which was:

For those who underwent primary surgery on or after 7 September 2018, we will extend the normal window of opportunity for free CI to be done (normally 18 months) by the longer period of the following:

a. 6 months, or

b. The length of time elapsed between 7 March 2020 and the (as-yet-unknown) date we re-open the on-line calendar for scheduling new primary operations.

For the time being then, we have to ask you to remain safe and to keep an eye on this page for further updates which we will give you as soon as we have something to tell you. We hope that will be soon.

STAY SAFE

Latest Information Regarding Measures Taken During Covid-19 Coronavirus Crisis – Update 7 April 2020

Suspension of all Operations

Because there is ongoing uncertainty about when it will be safe to resume operations following successful elimination of the Covid-19 coronavirus, we have taken the step of suspending all currently scheduled operations. This takes immediate effect.

How Does this Affect Me?

· Clients Who Have a Date Currently Reserved or Provisionally Reserved

All clients who have currently scheduled an operation will shortly receive an individual email from us explaining what this will mean for their own reservation. Please wait for the email to arrive before asking any questions. Please be assured that we will do or utmost to reschedule your operations date in the fairest possible way, giving priority to new dates in the same order that they are currently reserved.

We sincerely regret and apologize for the inconvenience this will cause to all affected clients.

· Potential Clients Who Have Not Yet Reserved a Date for Surgery

Regrettably you will be unable to reserve a date for any operation until such time as the calendar is republished at http://www.supornclinic.com/clients/calendar.htm

Right now, we are unable to say when that will be, so please try to be patient and wait for it to be published. We will not accept or acknowledge any requests for new reservations. However, we encourage you to ask for information about our operations as part of your normal research leading up to choosing The Suporn Clinic for your operation. Our administrative team will be pleased to answer any questions you have about surgery, and how we will look after you when you are in our care, with the exception of actually booking a date at this stage.

Backlog

There will be a backlog created by these changes, which we will work hard to clear as soon as is possible by increasing the “per week” availability of operations. Right now we are unable to forecast a new schedule with an increased number of available dates until we better know when we can resume operations. Please try to help us by reducing our administrative burden, by not asking when things will get back to normal. We will notify you through this page when we know that ourselves. Right now – we don’t know.

Effect on Cosmetic Improvement Operations

We will consider the suspension to have been in effect since the date of the last primary operation done, which was 7 March 2020.

All clients who underwent major surgery before 7 September 2018 are no longer eligible for free CI operations in any event after the date of the suspension.

c. 6 months, or

d. The length of time elapsed between 7 March 2020 and the (as-yet-unknown) date we re-open the on-line calendar for scheduling new primary operations.

STAY SAFE