Are Scots really treated as "overseas" patients by NHS in England?

notanewuser

tooldle wrote: »

Not overseas as such, but the three organisations are seperate.
I would suspect that the hospital is simply trying to establish which NHS should cover the cost, Scotland or England. Some specialist services are not available in Scotland and there is a separate fund set up to cover the costs of these treatment, which I think is called the national services delivery scheme, or something similar. There are therefore three potential pots to which the costs can be billed.
I suspect the confusing situation of GP in Scotland and residential address in England, is the cause of the dilema.

This is the thing, precisely.

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Devolution is a wonderful thing eh ?

Plenty of us think it is, yes.

Joons wrote: »

That's awful, you should definitely complain, what difference does it make, it's still NHS treatment.

Roll on independence for Scotland I say.

I can't see anything to complain about. The NHS isn't funded as a UK body. Money transfers when crossborder treatment takes place.

Scottish independence will no doubt just increase such costs.

pmarsh1986

Sorry I know this is relatively old thread but I had to comment. Clearly the issue appears to be the lack of local GP.

Is the GP happy/aware with the lack of local address? Most GPs are very strict with regards to their boundaries. What if your wife required an acute appointment? I'm not sure the doctors or nurses would travel to England for a house visit! I'm sure there woud be a comparable GP locally (with a wee bit if research). This just throws up too many problems as you've experienced.

And for everyone else, the NHS in Scotland has ALWAYS been a separate institution and in fact there was a sort of NHS before the NHS in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland which some say was the model for it.