Is It Time To Get Really Tough On This Lot?

[youngmafbog]

http://news.sky.com/story/1157884/health-tourism-nhs-can-save-500m-a-year

I know it won't go down well on here with the right-on brigade who are happy to spend other peoples money on a World Health Service, but isn't it high time a stop was put to this?

No doubt we will get dragged into the ECHR if we do though.

[factor-fiction]

I would love to believe there is an easy way of recovering this money but there doesn't seem to be. If someone presents themselves requiring urgent treatment the NHS will do what is necessary and investigate ways of getting the money back later. I recall seeing a documentary about all the effort that some hospitals put into trying to recover money with very little success.
In principle I agree but in practice I am sceptical as to whether much can be done and I think the bureaucracy involved would outweigh the benefits. I'd be interested to know though how other countries deal with the issue- maybe there is a method

[patsyann]

Other countries stop you at the desk.Present your insurance cover ,passport etc or you do not get treatment. It is done by reception staff not by Doctors and Nurses.The stupid Labour Health Minister said on TV this morning medical staff could not cope with having to make the decisions and nor should they.have to. We are as usual dishing out free treatment to all and sundry especially to people who have planned to come and not intend paying. In the case of a genuine emergency there could be maybe a little leeway. But no discharge until the bill is paid. What a state we live in these days.

[factor-fiction]

I can't see that being accepted here, patsyanne. If, for example, a relative broke his leg or was knocked unconscious playing football we'd be more than a little upset to hear the hospital had turned him away because he had no papers on him.

[factor-fiction]

>But no discharge until the bill is paid.

Some people would be quite happy with free board and lodgings and would sit it out for longer than Julian Assange is doing

[patsyann]

Oh no I did not mean everybody I meant Foreign visitors. Just a postcode would do on the computer for the rest of us.

[patsyann]

America sticks by their own rules.

[factor-fiction]

Patsyanne- I agree though that your approach may work for cases of planned future treatment- eg hip operations, cataracts, cancer treatments, although at some stage if they can't produce papers and payment in advance these may become emergencies and be treated eventually at the NHS's expense

[carolegif]

If you go abroad, you have to pay at reception or no treatment. When my son was treated in Mauritius, the sent me a bill for his treatment for an insect bite!

[dave50]

We need to be hard and ruthless and just refuse treatment full stop.

[factor-fiction]

>We need to be hard and ruthless and just refuse treatment full stop.

Have we as a nation got the stomach for that when stories emerge of people who were EC /UK nationals being turned away (and dying) because of some admin problem or because no family member was around to help find the papers

[Brenden]

I agree this practice has to be stopped - could anyone tell me what happened to Bimbo Ayelalola and her quins born in Homerton hospital a couple of years ago at the cost of £300,000 - last I heard she could not looke after her children in Nigeria - even though she took double the dose of Infertility treatment.

[bazwillrun]

they shouldnt even be getting into the country, let alone turning up at our hospitals etc

[boxtops]

It said on the radio this morning that we are way behind the rest of Europe in getting foreign nationals to pay for their care. There is no intention to stop giving emergency care FOC (i.e. in an accident or other emergency).

Baz, many people are legitimately in this country living and working, you can't tar them all with the same brush.

[Sqad]

£2 billion spent on foreign patients treated on the NHS.

Not as much as that say Labour.

May be more than that says the Conservatives.

I would accept with a marked degree of skepticism ANY statistic or report concerning the NHS from ANY politician and unfortunately any medical source.

If you, as you say, are a compassionate, philanthropic nation that distances itself from the uncaring countries of Europe and especially the US as healthcare is concerned, then stop moaning and pay up.

Of course one could make it clear that health insurance should be a pre-requisite for entry into the UK and without it one would need to pay for medical care, but that would cause to many problems, administrative and emotional, although other countries seem to manage.

[jake-the-peg]

Yup - these numbers can be pretty much anything you want depending on how you count them and what assumptions you make.

Stand back - I agree with sqad

It would be very simple to require health insurance as a pre-requisite to getting a visa and It would cost very little to enforce and administer.

The government's plan of a levy sounds really complex and expensive to administer and collect.

In either case there's questions of how effective they would be but if we're going to do something of questionable effectiveness - lets pick the cheap option!

[modeller]

My ex neighbour use to describe two planes a week at Heath Row as the maternity expresses. They came straight off the planes into taxis and taken to maternity hospitals.
When my daughter was in hospital an American in the next bed kept asking how she was meant to pay and was told there were no facilities to pay.
In contrast when my daughter needed an urgent op. in the West Indies
she was refused treatment until they had it confirmed by the Credit Card company.

[anotheoldgit]

Not many right-on brigade on parade I see YMB.

It doesn't only stop at the NHS, there are too many foreign nationals claiming other benefits.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/22/article-0-18C0246200000578-965_634x338.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2471425/Government-bid-recoup-costs-foreigners-claiming-benefits-home-nations.html

[atalanta]

One ferocious answer to the problem: make the airlines and shipping lines insist on seeing valid travel/health insurance before taking bookings. Any passenger who turns up in UK without such insurance is then the responsibility of the airline/shipping line, which must return them to the country they came from.

[Old_Geezer]

I can't see someone choosing to be a Health Tourist in over to sustain an accident here and become an emergency. Surely this is to do with longer term health problems for which time is a less critical factor ? In which case proving you are a citizen and entitled or providing proof of means to pay before getting treatment can't be too difficult. Genuine emergencies should be dealt with anyway, simple humanitarian behaviour.