Baby dies in childbirth. Parents not allowed to take body home.

If it happened in reverse looks like you would be fine: (info is from MSE site)
What happens if I fall ill in Europe and DON'T have an EHIC?

If you are eligible for an EHIC but don't have one and fall ill while travelling in a country where the EHIC is valid, you can be issued with a Provisional Replacement Certificate. You'll need to organise this BEFORE treatment except in medical emergencies

A PRC proves you're entitled to an EHIC and can be used to get you the same cover - but applying for one can be a laborious process. You or someone acting on your behalf will have to ring the Department for Work and Pension's Overseas Healthcare Team on +44 (0)191 218 1999 - frustratingly, you can only do this between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday

Sorry everyone re: about the EU card.... I had a brain fart and mis-read that bit!

Then I'm very puzzled by why the parents haven't managed to get their countries NHS equivalent to sort this out with the NHS. This can be done if you travel without one or don't have one when traveling.

My sis worked in the Paediatrics unit of a large hospital just outside London about 7 years ago. She worked in the admin unit for donkeys years and they were always sorting out paperwork for the kids and parents when they were from the EU and had either forgotten to get a card or didn't have it with them.

It could sometimes take months to sort out when the child stayed long term but it was just a paperwork exercise that needed to be done (crossing ts and dotting i's). It was normally sorted out with confirmation of residency from the EU country and getting the EU MS to settle any bills etc (that bit took the longest)).

But the moment they got the confirmation that the person was a resident in the EU country concerned then it was a kind of an non issue and merely a paperwork thing so everything got tied up and the right people were billed (if need be).

So I'm really baffled at this. Unless, there is more to the sorry than we are being told.

Ok this is the mirror but it does have quotes from the doctor involved in the case, and it is he who talks about the bassinet/taking the baby away
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-refused-hand-dead-babys-17795076.amp

I'm entirely with @badcat on this one.
If it was a British National in another country and this had of happened then they wouldn't be letting us off with such a bill either. Way too many people coming thinking the NHS is free for all, it is NOT!
Fault entirely lies with the parents I'm afraid, should have had the correct health insurance and she put herself and her baby at risk going away that late in the day anyway

If the true story is that the hospital won't release the body as punishment because the couple can't pay for treatment, then that is very wrong. But if the story is that the couple can't afford to pay for repatriation of the body, then that is a whole different story.

It is a tragic story but is there more to it?
How would the parents have been able to repatriate the body?
Or were they expecting the nhs to pay for it?
If so I can see why they didn't release the body. But how very sad. No winners here

Sounds like may be the facts are being twisted?

Is the body being held because the parents can't afford to repatriate? Repatriation is not anything to do with the NHS surely? However it may be there responsibility to ensure the body is released in the knowledge it will be dealt with appropriately and if that is not the case they can not release it.

This is possibly nothing to do with what the BBC have reported then.

Well the article has been written as click-bait and shock tactics. NHS holds dead baby hostage is far more of an attention grabber than NHS can't release a baby's body to its parents as they have no means to store and repatriate

And how the hell is it racist?

Again @fraggling.

I feel sorry they lost their baby, no one deserves that, but I don't feel sorry for the situation they now find themselves in with not being able to the pay the bills .

I think there is a lot of back story we are not being told.

Maybe the parents couldn't afford to take the baby back home or even pay for the burial?

As others have said, it costs thousands to bring home a dead member of a family, even a baby from a foreign country. Then there are funeral costs that could run into 3-4k. Not to mention cost of paperwork.

Its a horrible fact of life that it can costs thousands of pounds to bury a loved one. I know this from personal experience but I never had to factor in the expense and stress to bring someone home from another country thank the gods.

There aren't that many countries in Western Europe, and almost all in the EU.
Articles say the couple didn't have a valid EHIC which seems to suggest they would have been eligible for one. Not sure why they would be here as "hospital tourists" instead of a couple having a holiday. The articles I have read say nothing about repatriation, it was the presentation of the baby in a bassinet for the parents to take home that wasn't allowed.
I don't understand this, surely a bill is issued and then if it can't subsequently be paid they follow it up in the normal way. Not by holding a baby's body hostage.
The blaming of the couple on here is nothing short of racist.

You'd expect this sort of thing in America,. Not here. Fucking Tory government.

I heard of a case (one of many similar) in America where a British couple had a premature baby but the ICU would have cost them £1million. They had to find a million quid or let the baby die.
Right wing capitalist ideology. Thanks.

I'm baffled by the idea that she planned to come to the UK to give birth to her baby for free on the NHS.

AFAIK all Western European countries have socialised health care (I live in one of them). And while, yes, you should get your freakin' EHIC card sorted before you travel, it can be done retrospectively if there's a bill involved. It's things like repatriation of a body that aren't covered by it.

I cannot imagine any reason why someone from a western European country would deliberately go to the UK to have their baby. Surely you'd start by sorting your EHIC card first? Why do people think this?

Those of you who say the body should have been released, where was the body being released to prior to repatriation? Which the parents couldn't afford.

And I 100% disagree with the policy before people jump on+

I can understand and see what @Badcat666 is saying as heart breaking as the situation is.

No I don't believe the woman purposely caused herself (who would?) to go into early labour and her baby unfortunately died but that they purposely went to the UK so close to the due date to give birth to a healthy baby.

Like Badcat666 said hospital tourists. I do hope they get there child back and can have a proper funeral.

I'm so disgusted by this.
I used to think I was cynical, because I thought that most people are not basically decent underneath, that genuinely decent honest people are as rare as hens teeth.
I no longer think I'm cynical, I think I'm pragmatic. Most people are not decent, they are self serving and need rules because they will behave as badly as they are allowed.

@fraggling.

I don't agree with keeping the babies remains, to me it is a callus and heartbreaking thing to do.

The issue I have is this would never have happened in the first place if the parents had taken the correct responsibility to have medical insurance in place before they traveled. They let their baby down in this case. They were in the UK when she was 8 months gone, anything could have happened and unfortunately it did.

Where did I say they should be denied medical help? I didn't. Please stop trying to put words were there was none.

I was explaining that medical insurance or EU medical card is needed when you travel. And every bloody person knows this.

No hospital or Doctors would deny care to someone in need. Nor should they! They GAVE her emergency medical aid to try and save that poor baby, as rightly they should have, as any hospital would.

However, the NHS is not a charity case, it costs a lot of money to carry out a c section but the couple still decided to travel to the UK without medical insurance and without the means to pay.

In some countries if you travel but can't pay for your medical bills you aren't even allowed to leave the country to go home until it is paid off!

Its not about feminism, it's about being an adult no matter what gender you are and being responsible for the decisions you make.

They decided to risk traveling at 8 months pregnant to a foreign country with no medical insurance and the horrible and callus outcome of them not paying their medical bills is they can't bury their poor little baby.

I dont believe the story. Unless the body was kept because the parents were unable to repatriate it.

I bet it's nowhere near as black & white as that article makes out.

It does cost £Ks and masses of paperwork to repatriate a body, whoever you are, wherever you are.

I think this is utterly appalling tbh. I also thought that emergency treatment was free regardless - surely this is classified as an emergency?

'poor little baby'
'the fault lies with the parents'

They have lost a child at term and uk policy, tepresenting you me all of us, says they must pay to bury it. Have they even been allowed to see it.

No sympathy at all for them though, obviously. The whole thing (including medical emergency and baby death?) is something they brought on themselves. The hospital /policy has literally nothing to do with the situation they are in.

UK = callous beaurocracy. Great.

I hate to ask - what did they do with the baby's body? At 8 months doesn't s/he have to have a funeral - who paid for that? Did the NHS keep the baby's body because the parents couldn't prove they had the means to repatriate?

The NHS is losing a shit load of money because ppl from non EU countries think it's alright to try and use the NHS for free.

It's at most 0.3% of the NHS budget.

fullfact.org/health/health-tourism-whats-cost/

Badcat66 are you really saying this mother orchestrated a bleed and need for emergency c section and death of her baby in an attempt to get free transportation of her dead baby home? What is your actual point? What do you think she was hoping to get for free?