A drain on the NHS

How very convenient for that story to come out now.

Are such people not charged? I thought that they would be.

Am I entitled to NHS treatment when I visit England?

According to this, maternity treatment is not free. Which newspaper was it?

Did she perhaps count on being considered an emergency case?

By the way, this was in 2011.

Daily wail.

It was in the Daily Mail Online today as part of an article www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3036152/Show-passport-use-NHS-Clampdown-stop-migrants-tourists-abusing-Health-Service-costs-2bn-year.html

Other than that, it was in the Mail and the Sun when it happened in 2011, and in a lot of Nigerian papers, which must have encouraged other Nigerian mothers to try their luck. Not a peep since.

It does seem that maternity treatment is NOT one of the things that overseas visitors can get free, so I hae ma doots about the report being the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Free are -
emergency treatment – this may be in an accident and emergency (A&E) department, a walk-in centre or a GP surgery
treatment of certain infectious diseases, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
compulsory psychiatric treatment
treatment imposed by a court order
family planning services – this does not include maternity treatment or terminations of pregnancies

I was watching a programme the other day with a French women reviewing the papers. A comment came up about health tourism and she was very surprised saying that was just what the French would say about the UK citizens abusing their rights to their health service.

I agree with petra that this was almost certainly in the paper she calls the Daily Wail and I call the Daily Hate. Today we get to hate a Nigerian women if you are fool enough to read the awful trash they produce.

That is where it is. I could have predicted it.

I believe maternity treatment is classed as an emergency, presumably if the mother just turns up in labour!

Exactly, petra. How to wind people up in one easy lesson.

I wonder what else they will dredge up from their archives to keep everyone simmering nicely?

Not everyone, Elegran! Readers of other daily newspapers will surely find something carefully chosen to inflame their sensibilities just as often.

What I love about the DM is its unerring ability to know which buttons to press to provoke anger and hatred

Those who like this kind of thing will find this the kind of thing they like.

(From a review of a dire film)

Yes, clever stuff! Anger, certainly, but I don't know about hatred.

(not referring to your non-existent link, obviously, Elegran! )

That's what the reviewer said, Ana.

The Daily MIRROR states the woman set to become the worlds oldest mother of quads
That makes it sound as if she's still pregnant, no mention of a birth in 2011

Did anyone read about the plan to make people take their passport to hospital when they go to prove they are entitled to treatment?

Ana - I think the anger can lead to rage and the rage to hatred . What is doesn't do is try to get people to think.

Are you on the right thread, nina?

(Thanks Eloethan)

The 2011 one was a woman from Nigeria who (it said) came to Britain to stay with her sister while pregnant with QUINS so as to get free maternity treatment (although maternity treatment is not free to overseas visitors, maybe she waited until she was in labour and became an emergency - a risky thing to do IMO). There was no further news about her in the Sun or the Mail after that but quite a lot of coverage in Nigerian papers. The passport stuff was in the Mail's revival of that story today. I put a link to it above (at 18:08:04) Wonder why the Mail has bumped the story pre-election? #cynicalemoticon

The woman set to become the worlds oldest mother of quads is a different story.

From what I've seen of the daily papers' front pages today, the passport stuff was the Mail's main story.

The bit about the Nigerian mother was just an inset story, given as an example of how the NHS has been abused by some in the past.

MIL never had a passport because she never left the UK.

There must be quite a few people like her.