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So finally the government have sussed that the Health tourists are going a long way to bleeding the NHS.
Foreign patients are to be billed at the bedside it is claimed. We are when abroad in most of the world.
Hospitals in the EU at least want an E111 card further afield they want your insurance details up front before you get so much as an Elstoplast.
It cost’s an average £800 a day to keep a patient in a bed in a NHS hospital.
I say about bloody time too.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Relatives arrive from abroad & present with old injuries claiming “they fell this morning”. Xrays tell a different story but as the arm was broken we fixed it. The whole lot free surgery the lot !!!
What are your thoughts on this subject?
I am slightly curious to how they are going to do it though because I cant see anyone being kicked out of a UK hospital if they need treatment.
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Every other country with social healthcare programs has some kind of ID checks in place before anyone is admited, I don’t know why we don’t and it has taken so long for the government to realise that it is a problem.
What are your thoughts on this subject?
In a nutshell the NHS struggles to accommodate the people who are entitled to treatment through it, so its common sense anyone not entitled to free treatment should pay…..because of strained resources I have been a great believer if you are in a higher income bracket you should take out private health care…this also will relieve the burden somewhat and get people who need the NHS quicker and better treatment….it makes sense
The issue of foreign patients……..my friends mother-in-law came over to visit from Canada 2 years ago….she had visited many many times previous to this one too….anyway she became ill and was hospitilised….we all thought she wouldn’t pull through, but after a long stay….about 4 weeks…no surgery incidentily…..she became well enough to be discharged….stayed with her family for a further month before her family were happy she can travel home
While she was in hospital my friend told the hospital her MIL is an overseas visitor and that she understood they need to pay for her treatment….she was told they will contact her regarding this……2 weeks past…so she wrote into the hospital explaining the situation again hoping to hear from them…..nothing…2 weeks after she was discharge….she wrote to the hospital again reminding them…..now I spoke to my friend many times during this period and she would mention it again to me time and time again…said she was stressed waiting and wished they would just tell how her much it will be so they can move on…..
She never heard back from the hospital….she cant force them to charge her…anyway her MIL passed away over Christmas….they never paid for her treatment…what more could she have done….whos to blame…..is this a common thing?
The Department of Health should build on existing systems, such as the NHS number and electronic patient record. How can they recover costs as the lack of a single easy way to prove whether patients are entitled to healthcare. Treatment given in A&E departments is free to all, however, once you are admitted, even as an emergency, overseas visitors are chargeable, the system for recouping costs from overseas patients is chaotic . How the hell can they recover up to £500m a year as announced recently?
An E111 card covers the EU (28 countries) and also Norway, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Iceland have a similar Insurance as far as I know.
So you’re saying that people visiting from the remaining countries (many of which are poor), should not be hospitalised for free, if sick.
I presume you’re referring to this category, right?
We’re all humans.
I’m shocked you added such a thread tbh, with you apparently being a nurse.
Sems you didnt learn much from Florence Nightingale.
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Sorry, Blossom, but this is a totally different situation.
Florence was supporting BRITISH troops in the Crimea, not non-British health tourists in Swindon, for example, which is where I live… Given her commitment to good hospital management she would have been disgusted by today’s NHS.
I’m on Twitter! @caravangraham
Seems you didn’t get it caravangraham.
It’s about compassion.
Nursing should be a vocation – not just a job you do to make ends meet.
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Wrong.
Working for a charity is about compassion. Depending on the charity. And the person.
Being a nurse is about medicine.
Try telling that to Florence Nightingale.
Well if I did, which is very unlikely given her own health, she’d probably agree. What do you think she thought it was about, power drills?
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