Overseas visitor charge for using A&E

born_again

user1977 said:

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.

Not been aboard for years, but know people have to show passport to get through to airside at local airport. As has caused long delays before.

So thought that was a custom check 🤷‍♀️

DullGreyGuy

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. 🤷‍♀️

Customs are about the control of goods coming into the country and ensuring proper taxes are paid on them. You're going in the wrong direction for them to be interested when you leave the country. 

Okell

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.

Are you going to answer the question as to whether she had travel insurance?

powerful_Rogue

DullGreyGuy said:

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. 🤷‍♀️

Customs are about the control of goods coming into the country and ensuring proper taxes are paid on them. You're going in the wrong direction for them to be interested when you leave the country. 

Customs do outbound checks at times looking for large amounts of money leaving the UK undeclared.

prettyandfluffy

An observation, as several people have referred to having an EHIC/GHIC for Brits to access medical treatment when abroad: an EHIC/GHIC is not a substitute for adequate travel insurance and should not be seen as such.

Okell

I presume in this day and age of ever increasing surveillance that the authorities know everybody leaving the country via "official" channels and could easily prevent any particular individual from leaving.

But I doubt they'd do it for an unpaid NHS charge.  (Although perhaps they should...)

user1977

born_again said:

user1977 said:

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.

Not been aboard for years, but know people have to show passport to get through to airside at local airport. As has caused long delays before.

So thought that was a custom check 🤷‍♀️

Customs are when you're entering the country to check what you're importing (though it's ages since I've seen any staff there!). And as mentioned upthread, it's immigration who will be interested in the status of those arriving in the country.

On departure, getting to airside these days just involves scanning your boarding pass. The airline will want to see your passport, but that's to make sure you can enter the destination country without them having to ship you back again (and to check that you're the same passenger named on the ticket).

powerful_Rogue

OP might find this useful.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/debt-to-the-nhs-border-force-officer-guidance/nhs-debtors-accessible

Alderbank

Cracking find there, @powerful_Rogue!

Very interesting.

Flugelhorn

Okell said:

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.

Are you going to answer the question as to whether she had travel insurance?

of course we aren't going to hear ... though the  silence says it all and so we know the answer