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HAVE YOUR SAY

SHOULD FOREIGN PATIENTS PAYS FOR NHS CARE?

Can the NHS cope with the added pressure?

Monday May 5,2008

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(61)

ONE in three hospitals are failing to make foreign patients pay for their care, even though it is costing taxpayers tens of millions of pounds a year.

A third of health trusts in England and Wales are ignoring government advice to routinely check whether a patient is eligible for free care.

One health tourist told hospital bosses that they had to treat him but he would not pay and there was “nothing they could do about it”.

Health tourism is estimated to cost the public £62million a year, with some treatments costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

DO YOU THINK IT'S FAIR THAT WE PAY THE MEDICAL BILLS FOR FOREIGNERS?

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO TACKLE HEALTH TOURISM? WHO SHOULD PAY?

***HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW!****

PAY BEFORE YOU STAY

25.05.08, 8:35am

Foreign patients should pay for their health care. What rights do they have to demand free care. Many people, myself included, have to wait for disgraceful amounts of time for hospital appointments so why should they receive preferential treatment when they have not paid into the system. It's very fine and dandy being the world's conscience but not when we cannot afford it.

• Posted by: Globetrottinggranny • Report Comment

SHOULD FOREIGN PATIENTS PAYS FOR NHS CARE?

16.05.08, 12:22am

Not only should they pay but there should be compulsary health screening before anyone is allowed into the uk

• Posted by: treehugger • Report Comment

THANKS MAGGIE

14.05.08, 2:25pm

That is the main problem, there are people arriving here every day from all over the world with God knows what diseases.

These diseases left unchecked can spread, like the story I mentioned about the 2 year old girl with pulmonary TB, which is passed on from one person to another. Some TB isn't, but surely we should be re-introducing the BCG to counteract the chance of our children catching it.

We had virtually got rid of TB, now it is back wilth a vengeance - along with other diseases that are expensive to treat.

Why should the British taxpayer have to fund treatment for people just arriving here? Or living here for years and passing on their disease to innocent British people?

A health check on anyone proposing to live here should be a MUST for the authorities.

We cannot afford to keep treating people for HIV, Aids, Hepatitis and TB when they haven't made any contribution to the system.

We wouldn't be allowed that if we left this country and discovered we had those problems, so WHY are we picking up the tab for the worlds problems by paying for foreigners health care?

We have enough problems of our own with cancer, alzheimers etc., where CHARITIES have to pay for hospices etc., rather than rely on Government funding.

I know this, because this happened to my family, and I get regular newsletters asking for donations.

Our NHS should be for OUR people. It is after all called the NATIONAL health service, not the WORLD health service.

If foreigners need to use the system as an emergency, well that cannot be avoided, but for continuation of treatment/care, they should be obliged to pay - upfront - so they can't do a runner when the bills land on the doormat.

• Posted by: SandieL • Report Comment

I SECOND YOUR COMMENT SANDIEL

14.05.08, 1:23pm

In the fifties I was in hospital with TB, then the numbers of TB cases rose rapidly with people coming in from countries where the disease was rampant,we wer then fortunate to have the drugs to contain it up to a point or else it was off to a sanitarium.
The consultant and the ward doctor came into speak to us about the disease one afternoon saying that although we had the drugs to treat it we must never be complacent and stop testing
people (there were mobile vans that used to visit businesses and schools making the tests,) because one day a strain would arrive for which we would not have the drugs to cope with it, he was not wrong , what has made me very cross is that I fought that disease and now my children and grandchildren are at risk with the rise of TB cases for the same reason as it was then. Prevention is always better than cure
we have no health checks on arrivals

• Posted by: Maggie • Report Comment

I'M ANNOYED AGAIN TODAY....

14.05.08, 1:18am

About the little girl who has pulmonary TB, which wasn't recognised by the doctors at the hospital or by her GP.

Foreigners coming into this country are bringing diseases which had virtually been eradicated here.

There must be millions spent on diseases which are not normally found in this country, but being brought in....

If British people go on holiday and need hospital treatment, they have to pay, so why the hell shouldn't foreigners pay for treatment here??

Why isn't Jock McBroon licking his lips at the prospect of all of the money that could be generated by charging non UK citizens??

What the hell is his agenda, making this country a bloody soft touch for all visitors, yet making it a living hell for people actually born here??

And it is just so bloody funny that when he retires to Scotland, everything is free up there for his return....

What a two faced double standards git!

He gives the Scots a bad name, and I live near Scotland and love the Scottish people, so it pains me to say that.

I would love him to be voted out of his constituency cos even his own people must want rid of him now.

• Posted by: SandieL • Report Comment

WHAT, WITH OUR PEOPLE HAVING TO PAY AND GO ABROAD FOR OPERATION S TO EASE THEIR PAIN

14.05.08, 12:03am

This makes a mockery of the whole system, because we are expected to support the world and his wife which creates another unfair situation, people who can afford to go elsewhere for treatment are,in effect, jumping the queue in front of those who cannot afford to pay.This should not be, the NHS was supposed to look after us from the cradle to the grave,All Of US, it was never envisaged as an International Health Service which it has been allowed to become, where else does it happen in the world.
We must say NO,its our money,.

• Posted by: Maggie • Report Comment