NHS help (legal matter)

Purplekylie22

I live in Aberdeen where I do not qualify for treatment. If I lived at my mums in Leicester I would qualify for treatment. If I were to register at the doctors near my mums in Leicester and request treatment claiming I live at my mums, would I be breaking the law? Would I get into trouble?

McKneff

Yes, you would get into trouble, you would be lying.

Why are you not able to have treatment in Aberdeen

Dontknowanymore

When I recently registered at the doctoers they wanted proof of my address and they don't just accept any old thing.

Purplekylie22

McKneff wrote: »

Yes, you would get into trouble, you would be lying.

Why are you not able to have treatment in Aberdeen

I don't qualifiy. I meet national guidelines.

I need help with my weight basically, I have struggled my entire life. National guidelines say BMI 40+ to Qualify for surgery, my BMI is 50. Leicester guidelines are BMI 50+ i.e. I qualify for surgery, Aberdeen are 60+, I do not qualify.

Purplekylie22

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

When I recently registered at the doctoers they wanted proof of my address and they don't just accept any old thing.

Its my mums address, not just any old address, I used to live there until I moved to Aberdeen, I was born in Leicester even. I could provide evidence of living there.

Dontknowanymore

Purplekylie22 wrote: »

Its my mums address, not just any old address, I used to live there until I moved to Aberdeen, I was born in Leicester even. I could provide evidence of living there.

I used to live at my Mum's house, but that is irrelevant, aside from the fact it would need to be dated within the last 3 or 6 months, it's fraud.
Sorry but if it means that much to you, could you not move back there?

Purplekylie22

Dontknowanymore wrote: »

I used to live at my Mum's house, but that is irrelevant, aside from the fact it would need to be dated within the last 3 or 6 months, it's fraud.
Sorry but if it means that much to you, could you not move back there?

As far as I can tell Legally anyone can apply to any doctors in the NHS, I would be staying at my mums for the duration, so technically I would be living there, it just wouldn't be my permanent address I suppose. So whether it is fraud or not is really the question. I have no intentions of breaking the law. If someone legally can tell me that it is not legal, I wont do it, theres no debate there. I have never been in trouble with the law my entire life, I do not want to break the law.

Under these regulations, there are no legislative criteria as to who is ‘eligible’ to register
for primary care. However, there is a requirement for the GP to make a discretionary
decision about whether to accept the patient or not and a practice can, if it wishes, ask
for proof of identification and other documents

(Taken from. http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/documents/4585159/7b9054c9-e10c-4196-bd5f-bc98bd89cc33.

Moving back to Leicester is an option, however I have three kids, its not as simple as just moving myself.

McKneff

Could yu not persevere with 'Weightwatchers' or Slimming World, surely that is a far better option than radical surgery.

There is always, always a risk with this sort of surgery, it's not too long since there was the death of a young wife and mother in the English papers not long after this sort of surgery

Yur 3 children could be your motivation.

Purplekylie22

McKneff wrote: »

Could yu not persevere with 'Weightwatchers' or Slimming World, surely that is a far better option than radical surgery.

There is always, always a risk with this sort of surgery, it's not too long since there was the death of a young wife and mother in the English papers not long after this sort of surgery

Yur 3 children could be your motivation.

I appreciate the advice, but after 10 years of *sticking with it* and trying all the usual methods, I'm not getting anywhere. If there was a way I could do this myself, I would. Its really not as simple as stop eating and exercise more, I do that. Honestly I do. I cant really explain my life long struggle to you, it really is the kind of thing that you need to experience to understand.

Dontknowanymore

Purplekylie22 wrote: »

As far as I can tell Legally anyone can apply to any doctors in the NHS, so whether it is fraud or not is really the question. I have no intentions of breaking the law.


Moving back to Leicester is an option, however I have three kids, its not as simple as just moving myself.

All I could find is this. http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_family/health_index_ew/nhs_patients_rights.htm
I cannot see any GP surgery allowing you to register with them if you live that far away, my last surgery advised me to join another surgery when I moved 5 miles away, I did anyway but not sure if they could have forced me.

My point about fraud was about proof of address, if you are not living there then any 'proof' of address would not be valid surely?

Trust me I know how hard it is moving with kids in tow, i'm about to do my 5th in 2 years! Never again! :eek: Maybe moving could be a goal to focus on?

Nicki

If you move to your mum's address, then you can register with a GP in that area as a temporary patient for the length of time you stay with your mum. However, I suspect it would be difficult to persuade a GP to refer you for elective surgery as a temporary patient, and even if you were able to persuade them to do so, I would also expect there to be a fairly lengthy waiting list for the surgery, and you would need to be living with your mum during the waiting period to remain eligible for the treatment. To do it this way round would be legal, but I suspect not very convenient.

If you registered with a doctor near your mum as a temporary or permanent patient whilst still living in Aberdeen, then this would be fraud, and you would be likely to be prosecuted. I don't know of any medical cases where this has happened, but I do know that Local Authorities have started to prosecute people who do this to get their children into a popular school with a limited catchment area, and that (short) custodial sentences are being handed out for this. You would easily be caught out if you tried this, the first time you needed to seek medical help in Aberdeen, or by failing to respond to phone calls and letters to the fake address, or just by being on official registers such as the electoral roll in Aberdeen throughout this period.

Have you balanced out the difference in cost between paying privately for weight loss surgery (around £5000 I think) against the cost of moving the whole family to Leicester for an extended period, including any loss of employment that might entail, and does it all make economic sense? If so, a permanent or long term move maybe makes sense.