200 £million NHS black hole foreign health tourists

Because as a country we appear to have given up, thrown in the towel on just about every front.
As a people we haven’t but our governments have.We deserve better.

I am proud to live in a country that treats a sick human being as in need of help regardless of nationality; but on a practical level there does need to be a system that allows for a financial contribution from someone from abroad.

I know this is also ex-pats who come back, give their previous home address or the address of a relative, and get their treatment, then go back to wherever they are now.

Luckygirl3 I am proud to live in a country that treats a sick human being as in need of help regardless of nationality

Well, in that case we all need to pay more tax so that we can treat the world's sick people, don't we?

Come on, we're being taken for a ride.

What an unpleasant thread.

The NHS budget for this financial year is £195.6 billion. £200 million is a very small black hole in the greater scheme of things, given you didn’t report how much is recouped from people who are not entitled to receive free treatment on the NHS, or what the cost to the NHS of chasing up those who should pay but don’t would be. Isolated headline threads are meaningless without the context.

I wonder where the idea for this thread came from?

The £200 million is only for invoices issued. The majority of hospitals don’t issue an invoice as they know is a waste of time.

Not only is this unpleasant but also mean spirited.

I’ve been unfortunate enough to have spent more than my fair share in A&E recently and I watched as people needing treatment who were not resident in the U.K. had to fill in lots of forms etc and were questioned very closely.

What else do you expect the A&E apartments to do? Turn them away, when they were clearly in distress or needed urgent care.

Perhaps you would prefer an insurance based health service? Like the USA?

Well good luck with that and pray that you can always afford it and not get seriously ill.

MaizieD

What an unpleasant thread.

I agree.

The Maternity unit I worked on for 17 years was the closest to Gatwick Airport so we had more than our fair share of health tourists.
The case that sticks out to me and made national news was a woman from Nigeria who had planned to travel to the US to deliver her IVF triplets as it had better health care. She was refused entry to the US and on the plane home went into labour. When the flight landed at Gatwick she was brought to our unit. The complexities of her case meant she was referred to a London hospital. Her 3 babies were delivered by Caesarean section and all needed specialist neo-natal care. The final bill was £500.000.
She refused to pay saying she hadn't intended to come to the UK.
For me, I don't believe anyone should be denied medical care.
However, a thorough overhaul of the NHS from top to bottom would save £m's. If this was a business, the way it is run would have seen it bankrupt years ago.

I worked in a Hospital near a immigration detention centre, we frequently saw patients from there, this has been happening for well over 20 years in my area. It's not a new thing.

So what would you do,then? Chuck them in the sea ? Travellers sometimes get sick and I would hate for the UK or Australia to be like the USA where it is incredibly expensive for visitors and if you haven’t got insurance, well God help you. People coming over specifically for some sort of treatment and that alone - now that is abuse and should be stopped immediately unless they are from a very poor disadvantaged country.

I believe Badenoch’s mother came to the U.K. to give birth.

Sparklefizz

Luckygirl3 I am proud to live in a country that treats a sick human being as in need of help regardless of nationality

Well, in that case we all need to pay more tax so that we can treat the world's sick people, don't we?

Come on, we're being taken for a ride.

There was a second sentence to my post ......

Whitewavemark2

I believe Badenoch’s mother came to the U.K. to give birth.

To be fair, I believe she gave birth in a private hospital. The prize in this case wasn't free healthcare, but the right to a British passport for the baby.

I did wonder as they were very well off.

Is it because we have a reciprocal arrangement with their countries?

I've had emergency treatment in Australia and a European country. No-one asked for my travel insurance, they just treated me.

nanna8

So what would you do,then? Chuck them in the sea ? Travellers sometimes get sick and I would hate for the UK or Australia to be like the USA where it is incredibly expensive for visitors and if you haven’t got insurance, well God help you. People coming over specifically for some sort of treatment and that alone - now that is abuse and should be stopped immediately unless they are from a very poor disadvantaged country.

People coming over specifically for some sort of treatment and that alone - now that is abuse and should be stopped immediately

I agree.

Thank you, Australia, for my prompt treatment - two minutes wait in the A&E!

Casdon

The NHS budget for this financial year is £195.6 billion. £200 million is a very small black hole in the greater scheme of things, given you didn’t report how much is recouped from people who are not entitled to receive free treatment on the NHS, or what the cost to the NHS of chasing up those who should pay but don’t would be. Isolated headline threads are meaningless without the context.

This Primrose where is your historical evidence please?

All I know is we never set off on our trips to the US and other far flung places without insurance policies to cover sickness, accidents and possible hospitalsaton. We even had to take out such a policy when we went to Jersey the island, not New Jersey, last year no reciprocal arrangements in place apparently. I thought the Channel Islands being part of Britain wouldn't preclude Britons from the mainland being treated health wise.

The Channel Islands are a British Crown Dependency, not part of the UK. They have their own independent government.

This is so unpleasant they are all human beings!

Ah, I’ve just seen the Sunday Newspaper front pages, I’ve found the very reliable, ahem, source.