Overseas visitor charge for using A&E

Aylesbury_Duck

dan_starstream said:

elsien said:

If they had told her it wasn’t A&E, and the treatment was chargeable, would she have carried on or not? Because if she would then have declined the treatment, then clearly it wasn’t an emergency and A&E wasn’t appropriate anyway. 

She would have returned to the A&E department, where the treatment would have been free of charge.

You do realise it's not a series of supermarket counters you can pick and choose from?

EnPointe

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Voyager2002 said:

TELLIT01 said:

The hospital decides where a patient will be treated, not the patient or anybody acting on their behalf.  Even if she had been triaged at A&E, and further treatment would have been chargeable

I'm actually please to see that at least some hospitals are now charging foreign nationals for non emergency treatment.

The patient obviously has the option to refuse treatment.

In this case, the patient attended A and E believing that she was experiencing a medical emergency. Someone decided that this was not the case: all that was necessary was to tell her this, and giving her the option of continuing or deferring further treatment. They failed to do so.

An analogy: many of us visit Spain and rely on our GHIC cards. Imagine going to a public hospital there, secure that we would not have to pay for treatment, and then being moved to an expensive private ward, without being told. That is a very similar situation to what the OP experienced. 

That's a good point and a fair comparison.

However, how does OP's SIL go about getting the debt cancelled and more crucially, remove any markers that might appear on systems that could prevent her travelling to the UK in future?  Is there a risk that she's unable to deal with it from Turkey (and would any action from there be successful?) and the travel markers remain, even if enforcement of the debt is impossible?

by paying the charge for the NHS care she recieved 

EnPointe

Brie said:

I'm a bit foggy about my last visit to A&E or any previous ones but despite having an obvious non British accent I was never asked about my residency status or saw anything to indicate that non UK residents would be charged for any treatment.  

I'm not saying that non UK residents shouldn't be charged but just that someone should have stated it outright that there would/might be a charge.  

As for the OP I might suggest that you discuss this further with the department that sent you a letter and perhaps agree that SiL would pay a small amount monthly.  This might come from your bank account but it would remain her debt - that may be sufficient to satisfy Border Control.   ( @Exodi -  your thoughts?  or your wife's??)

you have have an NHS number and  are you  registered with a GP ?    those  would  suggest you meet the habitual residence test  if the address you  gave when registering matches up with the Spine 

sheramber

dan_starstream said:

elsien said:

If they had told her it wasn’t A&E, and the treatment was chargeable, would she have carried on or not? Because if she would then have declined the treatment, then clearly it wasn’t an emergency and A&E wasn’t appropriate anyway. 

She would have returned to the A&E department, where the treatment would have been free of charge.

I would imagine A&E was busy and on seeing a patient in pain would refer them for immediate investigation on the ward rather than  leaving them in pain for possibly hours to be attended. 

There have been reports of 4 hour waits in A&E.

Or, she may have been sent to a Same Day EmergencyCare unit where investigations could take place. Patient would then return home the same day. 

This avoid blocking an A&E bed  for hours. 

user1977

born_again said:

Could it also be that this means that it could also stop them leaving country till bill is paid?

How would that happen? The UK doesn't control who leaves the country.

powerful_Rogue

user1977 said:

born_again said:

Could it also be that this means that it could also stop them leaving country till bill is paid?

How would that happen? The UK doesn't control who leaves the country.

It does monitor though.

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/your-trip/travel-documents/advance-passenger-information

user1977

powerful_Rogue said:

user1977 said:

born_again said:

Could it also be that this means that it could also stop them leaving country till bill is paid?

How would that happen? The UK doesn't control who leaves the country.

It does monitor though.

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/your-trip/travel-documents/advance-passenger-information

Sure, but I expect you'll need to have done something more serious than not pay your NHS bills in order for anybody to swoop in and stop you boarding your plane.

born_again

user1977 said:

born_again said:

Could it also be that this means that it could also stop them leaving country till bill is paid?

How would that happen? The UK doesn't control who leaves the country.

You have to go through customs, so could be a check there. 🤷‍♀️

user1977

born_again said:

user1977 said:

born_again said:

Could it also be that this means that it could also stop them leaving country till bill is paid?

How would that happen? The UK doesn't control who leaves the country.

You have to go through customs, so could be a check there. 🤷‍♀️

No, you don’t go through customs when leaving the UK.

TELLIT01

Coming back to the UK could certainly potentially be a problem.  As more and more systems are computerised it's far easier to see any 'markers'.