holiday disaster and travelsafe

snowpup

I tried to start a new thread about this earlier, but it all got lost amongst another thread about French air strike! If anyone can find it can they please give us any advice? I put several posts down there and had a couple of replies, but I suspect most people wont see it. If I need to write the story again I will. Please let me know. We are very upset and worried about how this travel insurance company has treated us.

jacques_chirac

Here you go:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64592439#Comment_64592439

In august we had a huge disaster on holiday, leading to my husband being rushed by ambulance, unconscious, to a Turkish hospital. He remained in intensive care for 4 days, under the care of the cardio specialist, before going on to the normal ward for a day before he could leave, and we continued with our holiday. The hospital was a private hospital, but we had no choice, as the nearest public hospital had no ICU, and no cardio specialist, so if he had been taken there, he would then have had to be transferred to the private hospital, time would have been lost, and he may have died. It was a very stressful time for us all- our 10 year old daughter and myself spent the first night not knowing if he had died, as we hadn't been able to see him after the ambulance rushed him away.
The next day we travelled to the hospital , and the international department contacted travelsafe, and explained the circumstances to them, and as far as we were aware, travelsafe gave the OK.
We heard nothing until just before Christmas and had assumed that everything was sorted, but I received a call from the hospital, basically telling us that travelsafe hadn't paid them, and had blamed this on us not filling in the forms they had sent us! We had received no forms, but mysteriously, that very day, a pack arrived from travelsafe,with forms my husband needed to fill in. He did this immediately, took copies, and posted them the very next day.
We have now just had the most stressful night of our lives. We received a huge bill yesterday that there is no way we can pay. My husband called travelsafe yesterday, and they say they will call us today when they have found the paperwork. We don't know what we can do. Can anyone help? We are hoping desperately that this is all a big mistake on Travelsafe's part. We thought we had done everything right when we took out this insurance.

jacques_chirac

snowpup wrote: »

My husband has just spoken to travelsafe, who say they are not paying the hospital bill. The debt was passed on to a company called Eventus, who are now trying to claim from us. Travelsafe now say we are to ignore calls and letters from Eventus, and pass letters on to them. This doesn't seem right, or fair. I clearly recall at the hospital the conversation with the lady who had been communicating with travelsafe, and she told me that they had okayed his admition and treatment under the circumstances- he had been rushed in unconscious after what had been thought initially to be a heart attack, while he was swimming with our daughter. He very nearly drowned, but luckily there were people around who helped to save him from going down, and got him to shore. I don't understand how travelsafe can leave us in this situation. They say the hospital will have to claim back from the state, but I find that worrying. Its an area we love, and want to return to, but I would feel very uneasy travelling there in case, God forbid, any of us needed emergency treatment at that hospital again. Wouldn't we be turned away? Anyone know how to make this whole story a new thread, or is it ok down here?!

Why are they saying you are not covered? It sounds like they think you are covered by the EHIC, but that does not cover Turkey.

snowpup

Thanks for that! How did you put that there? Can I get the latest developments onto here too?

jacques_chirac

snowpup wrote: »

Thanks for that! How did you put that there? Can I get the latest developments onto here too?

Go to the original thread, then you can copy and paste them over

snowpup

Their reason for not paying seems to be that he was taken to a private hospital, as opposed to a public one. The issue here is that he was unconscious, and there was no choice of hospital as the public one had no icu, and no cardio department. If the ambulance had taken him to the public hospital, he would have been sent straight to the private one. Travelsafe say they are not paying because it wasn't agreed on admission that he could go there, but he was UNCONSCIOUS!!!!!! And my daughter and I were stranded miles away not knowing if he was dead or alive, and we had no idea where he was being taken! I am certain travelsafe okayed his being there the next day when I managed to get to the hospital with all the documentation. We have had enough stress, and I think travelsafe are behaving dreadfully leaving us in this awkward situation, and the hospital unpaid.

jacques_chirac

It sounds like you could do with some input from someone with an insurance background. There is a separate board for insurance, but rather than you having to start again I'll post a request there for them to look at this thread.

I hope things get sorted for you.

snowpup

Thanks ever so much. That's really helpful. It was a real shock when we received the bill for £8000 yesterday. I'm sure the insurance company should have to pay. We took out this particular insurance because it had good reviews and was recommended by Which. Can't believe everything has gone so horribly wrong.

snowpup

Ah, well done me! Got the insurance company name wrong! It's not Travelsafe, it's HOLIDAYSAFE!

snowpup

holidaysafe , which seems to be part of a company called infinity insurance

richardw

Did the hospital give you a copy of any documentation with holidaysafe's authorisation or similar for treatment?