Ripped off. Need help

tshrbhag

Hey guys,

I had a visitor from India for about 3 months who got a bit sick & i took her to a local NHS hospital for a routine checkup. The ppl there told me she was low on blood and was recommended blood. I agreed and asked for charges, but they told me that its almost midnight and charges would be discussed in the morning, so would the blood transfussion.

They took the patient in, loaded 4 units of blood over the next 2 days, performed several tests and told me that she had a serious problem. All these days i kept asking for charges, but they could only tell me the charges on a working day now, coz first it was a weekend, and then a banking holiday on monday. Come tuesday they stand up with a bill in excess of £1500.

Although the patient has been discharged, they are asking me to pay the money. The admin dept. told me that i could make an appeal as no charges were discussed earlier and they would certainly be waived off or reduced to make things fair. So I signed an agreement for paying them in parts for 6 months and paid them a £200 deposit.

Now these guys have turned their backs and they are just taking my appeal in circles saying that coz i've signed the agreement, i must pay and they wouldn't accept their mistake of not discussing the charges earlier. I told them i would have sent the patient back to india if i knew about the high charges. But they won't budge.

Infact, the patient is now back in India, got her operation done, was in hospital for 10 days, was given lots of blood, and the total expense was just £200.

What should I do in this case?? I really need some help here.

Thanks
Terry

trafalgar_2

Go to CAB and get advice or see a solicitor.

You need proper advice because you had a good case up until you signed the agreement................now you need legal advice to get your appeal sorted properly.

Take advice ASAP

tshrbhag

Would it be worth seeing a solicitor? I mean, these guys are asking £1500, i hope solicitors do not eat more than that??

Thnx
Terry

trafalgar_2

Some solicitors give half to an hour free consultation but they are differant in areas of the country..................the citizens advice bureau should be able to tell you which ones do that.................then you'll know if you have a case or not ,before deciding

tshrbhag

Thanks on this one. I'm already in touch with the local CAB. I hope they will be able to asssit me with the solicitors.

Thanks
Terry

Poppy9

Sorry but am I the only person here who thinks that your friend who was treated should be paying. I suggest you would be better employed chasing them for the money. What difference does it make that teh hospital couldn't tell you the cost of treatment. If the treatment was so necessary that it involved you going to the hospital you weren't in a position to go shopping around all the hospitals for the best price.

The NHS is funded by working GB citizens. For too long we have operated an open door policy to anybody who wishes to use our health service. If I go on holiday to Europe or the US I know I will have to pay if I use their services - this is why I take out holiday insurance (form E11 gives limited expemptions). Your friend from India should have bought holiday insurance. I know you will say they couldn't afford it - but hey they managed to pay for the flight.

Poppy9

tshrbhag


How you have the cheek to ask to get out of a £1500 bill when you have then posted saying you are selling your Mercedes to import a new one and save £5-7k. Are you having a laugh? Our NHS cannot afford to treat your friends for free. Pay up because when GB citizens who have worked all their life and contributed towards the cost of the health service need to use the service they have to wait months because people are coming from abroad and free loading.

The treatment would cost over 7 times more here than in India as the employee wages are so much greater. Cheaper labour = cheaper prices which is why all the British banks are transferring work to India.

trafalgar_2

That has no relevance on tshrbhags query................they are not saying they don't want to pay the bill but are questioning the way it was done and in my view they have every right to do that.

The reason......................I have been treated by BUPA and the consultant in question tried to claim for things not done..................that is wrong and just because it is the NHS doen't mean they can/or should be allowed to charge people wrongly..how can you know if they did unneccessary tests or not.............even the admin have said they can make an appeal.................why is this any differant to an insurance company questioning a consultants bill ???

Poppy9

This is the NHS though not Bupa. You know how hard it is to get any tests done with them and for a couple of days of treatment and tests the cost seems reasonable. There was obviously a problem that required surgery as this was done when they returned home. From what I read is that he wasn't querying the amount as I am sure the hospital would have given him a full breakdown on the bill (or when he had queried this) he was querying why he should pay it because he didn't know in advance how much it was going to cost. If he had known it was £1500 in advance what would he have done - taken his friend home and paid nothing - not even for the doctors time of initial assessment?

tshrbhag

I agree with trafalgar. I'm not saying I don't want to pay the NHS. But it was wrong to charge me such a huge amount without prior information. Infact, I was ready for a bill of around 500-600 bucks. But they imposed a huge one. They are making me pay for a 5 day stay at the gynaec dept. where as the patient was in for just 4 days. That makes it 20% less. But they won't just agree on doing anything.

Infact, they told me an absurd thing that no airline would accept a passenger if the blood level was below 6. But the visitor I had already had low haemoglobin (excuse the spell if its wrong). Infact she had a 5.5 level in India at her last test. I told the hospital that the airline had nothing to do for her test and I could have sent her back easily and got the treatment done for just £200, which the patient has already spent. So why is the need to pay this additional big one of £1500.

I know that any organization in UK is required to explain charges before they begin. Even when we call a number, it would say that calls to this number cost blah blah pence. So why not in this case?

Again, the admin dept. told me that I could make an appeal. Now the CEO says that the admin did not tell me any such thing regarding an appeal or a refund. Infact, they cheated me into signing the agreement & I believe I made a stupid mistake signing it.

I'm trying to look for a solicitor in this matter immediately. I would rather spend £1500 and win the case than paying the hospital for a mis-informed bill. That way, I would feel satisfied on spending my money rather than wasting it by paying the hospital which deceives people out of their hard earned money. But I know that solicitors come at a cost and just hope to sort out this matter at the least cost.

Correct me if anyone feels I'm wrong.

Thnx
Terry

tshrbhag

You are getting me wrong poppy. I always believe in a fair pay policy. I would have surely paid the doctors for their initial work, sent my friend home and vallah, the whole treatment costs £200. Not just loading £1500.

Again, there was no such breakdown for overseas visitors. 5 days in gynae dept, you pay £1500. And the minimum was 5 days. Even if you were there for 1 day. Who could explain that to me???

They carried out unnecessary tests as the patient was already aware of the problem. We were only at the hospital for a temporary remedy.

Infact, if they told me that the tests cost £x and the blood £y & the services £z, it was alright. They just told me 4 days in gynae was chargeable for 5 days = £1500.

??

Terry