If this had happened in the U.S of A and a British subject had been refused treatment in a U.S hospital, there would have been an AB outcry fiercely abusing the barbaric American health system.
Now it seem that the UK is finally waking up and "smelling the coffee."
I can't see the problem. A foreign name so she has to prove she's entitled. It's normal in France -- most places that I'm aware of. A Health Card with photograph would solve all this; everyone showed that in France before getting any medical care; they also asked about your health insurance.
I don't think it is, Mikey......we can be pregnant and function... ;-)
She's requesting NHS treatment and if my experience is anything to go by your appointment letter for treatment in a Cambridgeshire hospital tells you to bring proof of identity and a utility bill.
Surely she is able to do this?
about time the NHS brought in some sort of 'thing' to stop patient tourism.
How many millions have they lost by treating tourists who then haven't paid up?
However, isn't the first line of the hippocritic oath 'I will do no harm'?
They may well be harming her tho, but as ummm says, she's got til the 30th to prove where she was born.
Mikey....other than the first part about attending an appointment without the requested documents that's the letter I received.....
I didn't make a fuss because I'm Irish......I thought.....not before time and took what they asked for to prove I was entitled to treatment there....it wasn't difficult.....x
no one gets turned away, they simply chase up if payment is required and most of the time they don't collect anyway. Miles away from the barbarism of most of the rest of the world.
"However, isn't the first line of the hippocritic oath 'I will do no harm'?"
alba.....Drs don't take the Hippocratic oath and haven't done for years...decades.
ummmm
"Why have you brought the US into it?"
Because AB has always become indignant over the ways that the U.S wouldn't treat patients without some sort of insurance backup and this case is similar except that it doesn't involve insurance but other methods of identification.
The principle is the same.
The NHS in England is NOT contribution based, it is residency based, every day at the hospital I work in during the emergency clinic on a morning (not life threatening) we as EVERY patient that fills a triage form out the same question, "have you been living in the uk for the last 12 months?", they will still be treated but COULD be charged.
This applies to everyone including British expats who fancy popping over for a bit of free treatment.