Living overseas visiting UK for surgery on NHS

OhWow

NHS Trusts get fined now if they don't check. When they check, they can add 50% to the bill if the patient does not have insurance to pay. The Trust keeps all the money to avoid losing that treatment costs from their budget.

The Immigration Act 2014 brought in that change and the NHS is now only bill free for British citizens and those with a valid ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) but only if they live in the UK and hospitals must get proof of that. Any exemptions to that can now easily be removed or added, without the need for a law change. eg. on Brexit with EU laws.



For those Brits that live-in the EU, the UK linked free healthcare in that country for retirees (paid for by the UK) to now being in receipt of a UK state pension. The others who had been getting the UK to pay for them now have to pay for their own health care.

They also brought in changes to the immigration laws so that those who have NHS debt of £500 plus, can no longer have a visa to enter or to remain in the UK.

The NHS persue debtors in the courts. They also persue those who invite a relative to the UK to visit, they then need emergency life saving treatment, but leave the UK without paying the NHS. One person reporting he had a 36k bill to pay for his father who visited, had a stroke, but then left the UK.

davidwood681

FBaby wrote: »

There is also the risk that they could get found out (and people do) in which case, the hospital will be in their right to send them an invoice and pursue payment.

:rotfl:

And just like everyone else they'll ignore it

WabbitWabbit

They would not worry about lying. The last time they were here they thought they had a brain tumor and after queue jumping for tests nothing was wrong they think nothing about calling an ambulance.
They are staying with their elderly parents, making their lives very unhappy as they are pretty aggressive and forceful.
They would not bother about a bill as I know they would not pay it.
Just makes me cross but there is nothing I can do .

OhWow

Under the new laws for the NHS, they can now request payment up front and refuse to treat them if they don't pay. The only treatment they can't refuse is urgent life saving treatment, but these still get billed. If they have travelled to the UK to steal healthcare, then it won't be life saving treatment eg heart attack.

You could always inform the local Trust to ensure that they get refused and then they won't keep returning and making their elderly parents unhappy.

The UK has brought back exit checks too and now share records with other government departments and they will be able to see that they are only visiting. Plus there won't be any active records for them in the UK.

gettingtheresometime

Actually I know of someone who lives abroad but comes back just for his annual cancer check

Paparika

great so now i know where money is being wasted. Yet I can't get half the support i'm supposed to get for my MS because there is no money. Can't have my HSCT on the NHS because guess what, they ran out of money. F**kin liberties

antrobus

WabbitWabbit wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place to post, please move if not.

Can someone who was born in the UK but has lived outside of Europe for the last 12 years return to the UK for surgery under the NHS?

Well, every time I check in for a hospital appointment the machine asks if I have been resident in the UK for the past 12 months. Presumably there is a reason for this.

WabbitWabbit

Well anyone can say yes to the machine as well

tomtom256

WabbitWabbit wrote: »

Well anyone can say yes to the machine as well

So basically you are saying you are happy for people to defraud the NHS and people wonder why the NHS has no money anymore!

GlasweJen

We check GP records, if you've got a gap in your GP registration and can't prove you were registered elsewhere in the U.K. in the last year before your referral we need evidence that you were in the U.K. and it must be from a government source such as council tax records or letters from the MOD confirming you were on active service abroad. We don't even automatically treat partners of military personnel who travelled abroad to live while their partners were stationed on long term posts, there's a whole campaign surrounding this.

We are able to do this as GPs know when someone has moved on and can update their records more easily in our area, this is much harder to police in the cities. We do actively check when someone hasn't contacted their surgery for a certain amount of time and deregister them if no contact is made in response.