Daughter in Turkish Hospital can anyone advise re insurance please?

Lady_K

I am not really very happy with the way the Direct travel are dealing with this, I don't know why they seem to be dragging this out and they have not phoned my daughter back once while she has been there. The only time they spoke to her is when she phoned them herself when she got to the hospital.

They took her mobile number and said they would call back but never did, her partner and I both phoned and two more people told us they would contact my daughter and still havent. I called again this morning to give them the room number as her mobile had ran out and 3 times they have said they will call her but made silly excuses and have not called. Threy also said they would call me back and havent.

They now say that all they are waiting on is her medical history from her gp and will call back some time today when they have recieved it back from them. I called her doctors to ask if they had recieved the fax and they have not, according to direct travel they sent it 45 minutes ago. I have now rang the travel insurance again to tell them it has not been recieved and please check the fax number its been sent to but its the right one. While I was on the phone I asked if she had managed to contact my daughter and she said no and stumbled excuses. She has said she hasnt been able to get through to her as both of the hospital phones are engaged yet I have got through every time. I'm feeling very let down by them and my daughter and her friend are stuck in that hospital just waiting.

Do the hospital keep charging whilst they are waiting even though she was seen by the doctor first thing this morning and he said she was ok to leave? They have been moved into a different shared room where there was another person waiting to be discharged, will she still be charged for this?

Do they always want medical history?

Doc_N

I think it's likely that the hospital will be charging as long as your daughter's using their facilities, but that shouldn't be a problem if the insurer's picking up the tab. I'm surprised they haven't contacted your daughter, but there may be a confidentiality issue in talking to someone else - is your daughter able to give consent to their discussing things with a 3rd party (such as yourself) perhaps?

They'll be entitled to the medical history under the terms of the policy, and I imagine it's a normal part of any claim process. Obviously, they'll want to be sure that there's nothing which would cause them to refuse the claim.

Lady_K

Yes they are discussing everything with myself and her partner they just ask security details and always say they will call back in 30 mins or an hour to all of us and never do plus my daughter has got us both on as contacts. The hospital payment staff are getting very upset too they keep coming to my daughter and saying press press insurance and say when they call its another story and they say they will call back but they never do to them either. I did not expect them to be this bad.

Direct travel have messed up more on the gp documents after having to be pushed to send the fax and send it again because the first did not turn up for some reason then when it finally did it was incomplete so the gp surgery had to call them and they took so long to send the missing bit that the only dr had gone out on call and wont be back for some time. When it gets there it then has to go to a decision maker which takes up to an hour. My daughter is really upset now, she cant move from the room, she hasnt had anything to eat since 6am and its 4pm now. She also thinks the payments close at 5pm so shes worried if she has to stay another night

Direct line seem to have to be pushed to do every step, its hard work. Its bad enough with us helping so I don't bare to think how it is for people in similar situations who are on thier own

Doc_N

You mentioned Direct Travel and Direct Line - is it the first of these? Please excuse me if you've done this already, but have you escalated it to a manager, or mentioned the possibility of a formal complaint, either within the company or possibly to the Financial Ombudsman. It's too soon for that at the moment, but it might encourage them to deal with this properly if they see the threat of a complaint.

littlereddevil

I think they will always ask for medical history, to make sure everything has been decalred when applying for insurance.
Haven't got experience of Direct travel though so hope all goes well.

Lady_K

They have declared payment at last and she has now left the hospital, its been a nightmare really, she said she felt like a prisoner because she could not leave the room at all to go anywhere. In the end the staff were abusive towards her and the payment staff because they saw it as her fault that she had not left the hospital. For some reason they could not recieve the paymeent details via fax or email and had to have it sent to spain first then turkey in the end but I believe it should have been escalated to a manager at the travel insurance well before it was.

Someone mentioned though towards the end that because it was a package holiday with thomas cook perhaps they should have been informed and may have helped with this but my daughter and her friends didnt know, they havent had to use such a service before.

I'm concerned about the MRI results though and seeing her gp, we can only hope it wont be too serious and wont affect her life too much, she is going to need further investigation but without this happening she wouldnt have found out so at least this has been highlighted to her now and can be fully checked out.
I'm sure it will have to be declared for any future travel insurance and possibly other insurances her partner thinks, so she will need to get insurance for pre existing conditions now too.

The insurance told her they would email her some claim forms but they havent arrived yet. What would these claim forms be for if they have paid the hospital bill?

Doc_N

Thanks for feeding back - I hope your daughter is soon safely back in the UK in the excellent hands of the NHS. The insurers will still need a claim form, I'm afraid, but that's standard industry practice.

epsilondraconis

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you daughter Lady_K.

luci

Which insurer is it, Direct Travel or Directline?

WhiteHorse

Let them pay. It sounds as if they may try to wriggle out of it otherwise.