Unintended Consequences

Agreed but it is isn't the ill teenager's fault.

That loophole is long gone though…..

Ah you mean like the rest of the world leeches off our NHS!
Only we’re too bloody soft to do anything about it.
Should be relabelled as the World Health Service.

We don't have ALL the aforementioned issues. There's been no empty shelves in supermarket where I live and certainly no petrol issues

All countries have some problems. But do any of those countries you mentioned have all the mentioned problems?

• Empty shelves in the supermarkets, and/or lack of petrol at the petrol stations.
• Shortage of nurses, teachers, doctors, retail workers, hospitality workers, and fruit pickers
• Increased need for food banks.

Yes, the high housing prices are a problem too.

There were food banks in new Zealand when I was there. Housing prices in Australia are sky high making people worse off. Canada also has issues and someone posted on here about France having a shortage of workers in hospitality

Not sure which of those are the 3rd world countries you speak about

But the problems are not in the countries that the UK normally compares itself to. Those problems are in third world countries. Are you ok with the UK getting worse and worse as long as other countries are as bad? That is such a low bar to set.

Healthcare is excellent in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland too. I couldn't say about the other countries in Europe but it doesn't appear to be something that moves people across borders.

Finland, Poland, and Germany are all in the EU. Germany cannot deport immigrants because of a German law. It has nothing to do with the EU.

Also: none of those countries have had empty shelves in the supermarkets, nor a lack of petrol in the petrol stations.

I didn't say EVERY country but there's lack of jobs, food banks etc in many.

I've probably travelled to far more countries than you anyway

And there's more to the world than just Europe

Yes, they will, but in order to get a work visa to work in the UK you now have to pay an amount to the NHS for each member of your family. It is making it very difficult to get employees from abroad as most of the experienced ones have a family.

Do you not read news from other countries? Travel to other countries? Interact with people from other countries? You actually think that every other country has those problems I mentioned in the first post? Why would they?

The other European countries have benefitted from Brexit in so far they were able to lure a lot of academics, teachers, and nurses back home. It is easier for the other countries in Europe to get fruit pickers now because the fruit pickers are less likely to come to the UK to work.

And quite frankly, it seems that a lot of people in Spain are very happy that the Brits can only stay in Spain for max. 90 days now. Funny that.

Yup, very little sympathy here too.

that's been my experience too, so i have little sympathy for NHS complaints of "health tourism"

I had to go to the hospital in the UK once, after I had moved abroad. It was pre-brexit, I showed my European health insurance card so that they could pursue costs from my country and they actually asked me to just give my parents address (who I was visiting) and put me down as resident. Seems chasing costs was too much hassle and they'd rather treat for free.

that is the same here in Germany - split shifts which means if you don't live next to the restaurant, you are literally working 14 hours a day.

Some higher class restaurants have this covered by now only opening lunch or evening. Or employing different staff.

It is a shit industry to work in, and i think they just need to pay more. And i know what that does to the price of food, but we expect cheap food so we get crap situations like this.

The situation in France is more complex.
Its not just the shit wage, working late etc… its the whole set up.

Eg waiter is working 4 hours from 11.00am till 3.00pm and is then expected to wait until 7.00pm somewhere (NOT in the restaurant prémices) to do the second half of his shift. The result is extremely long days, time in between usually unusable due to travelling time (can’t go back home) etc….

the hotel/gastronomic industry is in a crisis partly of it's own making. I know this because my DH is a chef. They can't recruit staff. The reason? plenty including:

-don't want to work evenings
-don't want to work weekends
-don't want to get up early
-it's hard work
-it pays shit wages

one DC works for a company who supply people to cover all sorts of jobs, mainly for gigs and trade fairs (wardrobe people, stage builders, kitchen helpers, etc etc) They are always busy, but the wages are shit and it is zero hours and can be precarious if things just get cancelled.

they are supposed to claim it back from you or your health insurance/insurance though. I think they are a bit half-hearted and my impression is that they don't have time/resources to really chase up those who don't immediately pay up?

So pre-Brexit, you went to hospital, used your E111 card (most European countries have a health insurance card with the E111 printed on the back) and the NHS billed your national health insurance scheme. Post Brexit? everyone should have some kind of health insurance when going to UK. How it works in practice? not sure, but they certainly don't chase you down the corridor with a card machine.

I was in Prague last week and flicking through the tv channels in my hotel room and found one called DW in English (a German news channel). There was several discussions I watched and I could've been in Britain. They moan about the same stuff as us!

The dire economy, their politicians, healthcare issues - yes they was moaning!!, immigration (Merkel's 2015 unfettered policy got a scathing mention) and there was grumbling about Finland, Poland and another country which escapes my memory, who have been allowed to deport immigrants and Germany can't.

Opened my eyes as you don't get to hear of their woes in the UK and because most of us can't speak the language we don't bother to learn.

That’s the same most places. If it is an emergency. When I lived in Oz and worked with the hospital and health services a number of hospitals have patients with debt, visiting foreign nationals who had some kind of medical emergency (serious like car accidenta, heart attacks etc). If you show up to A&E in a state like that you won’t be turned away obviously. You will be issued with a bill if you don’t have insurance. And it’s almost never paid.

It is happening worldwide.

An article here from France;

January 2025
Paradoxical: as unemployment soars, the hotel and catering industry cries famine.
We lost a lot of employees as a result of the pandemic, and we wouldn't want to lose any more, with employees moving on to other sectors.
At the end of 2023, hotels and restaurants had an average of between 250,000 and 300,000 unfilled positions per year.
But between the staggered working hours, the physical work and the pressure of the sector, the unattractiveness of these professions is one of the main causes of the shortage of employees.

https://fr.gaultmillau.com/en/news/chomage-record-penurie-emplois-hotellerie-restauration

My sister in law never has. She's had 2 children here.

Migrants - can get nhs care free
If you reside in UK legally, you are able to use NHS free
Also, there are reciprocal agreements with some countries …. Australians can use NHS free if in UK.
please explain what u mean by insurance. Think you talking something different.