Foreigners

If someone wants to live in this country so badly, fill in the forms!
How many of these 'students' are students. So many companies have been uncovered, it's difficult to know.
Self employed: would that be the Big Issue sellers?

You are being ridiculous now notanan we are not all barrack room lawyers on here you know.I think most posters would agree that identification should be presented up front, at a hospital, from foreign nationals ( non EU) to try and curb health tourism.
Will leave you with your massive bee in your bonnet.

Inactive patients? This is all getting a bit extreme, if people are going to prove they are who they say they are, then in future they will have to ask what credentials they should take to a hospital.Their GP surgery should be able to help them, inactive or not.

No, don't know about permanent residency applications.....why would I

Because I would have thought that by posting on a thread like this is implies some interest in the status of non british people in britain

so whatever end of the spectrum you sit on this, wouldn't you want to have some basic background understanding of what the existing rules are?

No, don't know about permanent residency applications.....why would I?But nobody can think that a proper check, before a hospital gives any treatment other than emergency, would be a bad thing.

Rose, GPs are being encouraged to take inactive people off their books, so if you don't need your GP for a year or so you may have to re-register.

So if you've not been ill lately, then what?

At booking every patient will need to show a form of photo ID or proof of their right to remain

I read that too, are you all missing he "or" in that sentance?

They're not asking everyone to prove their residency rights.

A letter from their GP/ College/ etc there really must becways of proving that you are in fact a resident of the UK, otherwise, if we do nothing this abuse of the NHS will carry on, and even get worse.

Rose do you know the first think about recent changes to permanant residency applications?

For a start, it's a long process, it's an 80 odd page form, and if you've been a student or self employed in the last 5 years your years may not count even though at the time it did count under the rules at the time.

Further down the article it says

“At booking every patient will need to show a form of photo ID or proof of their right to remain (asylum status, visa, etc),” the October trust board papers say.

The passport headline is just an attention-grabber - what the trust is asking for is proof of eligibility to be treated by the NHS, not nationality.

so may be easier for non EU residents at the moment, but it's impossible now for a lot of EU nationals, particularly those who have been students or self employed in the last 5 years!

Then they will have to prove residency, why would that be a problem?

Then any non EU resident of this country would surely be able to supply additional proof of residency if they were not British.

Theresa May made sure it's impossible for some EU nationals to get a residency card by moving the goal posts and applying new rules retrospectively so that people who were following the rules for years couldn't apply for a card!

I see nothing wrong with making the resources of the NHS only free for those who are really eligible

Sure, noone argues with that.

Checking Nationality of people as they seek NHS treatment is not checking eligibility to NHS treatment though

Just like schools asking kids if they have a British passport is not checking ESL status or numbers

I see nothing wrong with making the resources of the NHS only free for those who are really elegible.

I thought the passport was just for photo ID purposes. That's why other documentation is required to ascertain entitlement to NHS treatment.

Then any non EU resident of this country would surely be able to supply additional proof of residency if they were not British.It's not rocket science to prove either way,and would make it easier to see who is fraudulently claiming treatment.It can be done, and should be done.

I have read the link, and it's discriminatory if the initial check is the photo ID/passport

because it's to be used to decide who to ask to prove their residency, rather than to ask everyone to prove residency, so it's about discrimination with british passport holders not asked anything further about their residency.

Why ask for passports at all, it doesn't tell you anything about eligibility? If they want to check residency then I'ld support that, but then ask everyone to do so.

Rose a lot of ex pats live outside the EU

Have you actually read the link, notanan?

The London trust behind the scheme said all those seeking to give birth would be asked for photo identification, or proof of right to remain in this country.

What would you have hospitals do, go to the addresses of British passport holders relatives to check if they actually live there?
Presumably, if they live in a EU country at the moment, it doesn't matter anyway.
The only practical check that hospitals can do is to look at passports.

This is not about non British nationals who live and work here, they pay NI and are entitled as residents to any health care

Yeah, except it's not, because they are not asking for residency status, they are asking for proof of nationality! not residency!

And terri, just because you think ex pats who use rellies addresses to defruad the NHS are in the right, doesn't make them less guilty of defrauding the NHS

And they know they're defrauding the NHS, otherwise why give a rellies address where they don't live?

And that costs the NHS money. Money quoted above in "health tourism" stats

This is not about non British nationals who live and work here, they pay NI and are entitled as residents to any health care.
There may be procedures in place to charge British non residents ( depending on the country they live in)
All other ( non EU) as we are still in the EU, people that fly in on a visit and want treatment have no rights to our NHS at all.Health tourism has got to stop.

Terri, the NHS's own rules on eligiblity are that it is based on residency.

If a retiree choses to take their equity abroad, spend their pensions abroad, and spend most of the year abroad, they will lose their residency status, and if they are planning to not make the UK their resident country ,they should factor health care provisions into that.

but many don't, which is wrong

and checking passports doesn't test that

this as a reasonable question,as our NHS is not there for the free benefit of foreign nationals.

The NHS IS and should be for the benefit of foreign nationals if they are resident here

the NHS isn't for "British people", it is for "British residents"

A lot of "benefit tourists" which are included in the numbers are British passport holders who haven't paid a penny into the UK in decades but fly back and give a rellies address whenever they need treatment.

Asking people to present their nationality with the threat of no treatment when they are at their most vulnerable is not checking NHS eligibility