flossie35 Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 As from May this year, UK residents in Thailand are no longer eligible for free NHS hospital treatment when visiting UK. On a recent visit I was hospitalised for emergency treatment for a bleeding gastric ulcer, and on leaving was presented with a bill for 4000+ GBP. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations. The fact that one is a UK taxpayer and therefore already paying for the NHS is apparently regarded as "irrelevant" by the government, who claim that this measure will greatly improve NHS finances, which seems a bit unlikely. Not for nothing are they known as "the nasty party". The answer seems to be to take out travel insurance when returning to the UK./ Link to comment
emilymat Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I've just been in the UK for 3 weeks and caught a chest infection. Went to the doctors twice and free prescriptions. I am not sure of your circumstances but I've always understood 'emergency' treatment is free to all travellers. Certainly, when I took my Thai wife to the UK for a break this was understood. It's elective surgery that has proven the bugbear for health tourism. Link to comment
theoldgit Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 This issue is being discussed here Camerons-message-to-all-british-ex-pats for some time.I'll close this one as we don't really need two discussions on the same issue. Sorry to hear about your problem. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.