Travel Insurance

Joskat

My husband had to have a wound stitched while in the Canary Islands recently. At the hospital we had to provide his passport, travel insurance, EHIC and they took our address details. When we left the hospital he was given the paperwork regarding his injury and subsequent treatment they had provided but there was no mention of an invoice. Has this happened to anyone else? We're not sure whether we have to contact our insurers as we have no invoice to give them.

HappyMJ

Joskat wrote: »

My husband had to have a wound stitched while in the Canary Islands recently. At the hospital we had to provide his passport, travel insurance, EHIC and they took our address details. When we left the hospital he was given the paperwork regarding his injury and subsequent treatment they had provided but there was no mention of an invoice. Has this happened to anyone else? We're not sure whether we have to contact our insurers as we have no invoice to give them.

They may have made a direct claim against your insurer.

You should inform your insurer of what happened but as you've not paid anything you personally have nothing to claim.

Emergency treatment in a public hospital in the Canary Islands is free anyway whether or not you have insurance.

Joskat

Many thanks for the reply.:) I have now contacted insurers. Things got off to a bad start when there were mutterings about the EHIC not being valid in The Canaries, but after I pointed out that they were part of Spain things got a little better. Apparently some invoices can be delayed for up to a year and some treatment is free so was advised to do all the necessary paperwork and the company will have it when and if an invoice is received. I was told however that hubby may be able to claim for replacement glasses (they were damaged when he fell and now unusable) so it's worth claiming just for those I suppose.

Joskat

An update on my question.
We have just received paperwork from the hospital in Fuerteventura asking for all sorts of info - copies of EHIC, passport , private insurance etc even though they took copies while we were there. I rang our insurer who told me that this is common practice and that there will most definitely be an invoice to be paid, so it seems that emergency healthcare isn't free in public hospitals after all..........