NHS requires proof of eligibility to services

[Iloveantiques]

I've been referred by my dentist to the hospital.

Apparently because I am a new registration (nope, registered with NHS since birth) new to this area (nope, been here nearly 30 years) or a recent arrival to the UK (nope, never lived abroad) I have to prove my eligibility for services without charge.

Is this normal now? does the NHS really make hospitals check the eligibility of everyone newly referred?

I have emailed for an explanation but wondered if anyone else had come across this?

All of those things has the potential to become emergency situations without treatment though.

Therefore the first GP contact for the condition should then include a conversation about how payment will be paid throughout treatment if the individual isn’t eligible on the NHS.

If Britain continues to provide free medical treatment to the world, Britons will no longer receive the benefits of the NHS.

Immigrants pay a health surcharge when they apply for a visa so nobody gets anything for free from the NHS. If you're a tourist it's unlikely you will be getting cancer treatment or having a baby

You'd be surprised how many people are not entitled. The NHS are crap at getting the money from people after treatment has been received, so getting prior knowledge of entitlement is a very good thing!

Good to know the NHS is finally trying to get a grip on its finances.

And not to mention you pay national insurance when you live here. I have paid it for years and am more than entitled

AsleepAllDay
Of course you are entitled. You are ordinarily resident here. I don’t think anyone is suggesting otherwise.

asleepallday

£400 pounds a year.

I know people who pay more than that for their car insurance. If you went to a health insurance provider in any other country in the western world and offered £400 for a years health insurance including primary health care and hospital admission they would fall off their chairs laughing at you.

And yes, people do come to the UK to have babies. A few years ago a woman who had had fertility treatment ended up with four babies in a scbu for months. I think the NHS negotiated a deal with her embassy in the end, but for the time her babies got the care they needed other babies had to be sent elsewhere other than their local hospital.

And I have also paid NI all my working life, but am aware that the amount I have paid barely covers the treatments ( 1 childbirth, three operations) I have had or might have in the future, and that I am reliant on the continued good health of other NI payers who have sustained me by their payments.

@MountainDweller, you and the people you describe aren't the ones I mean - the older people who have retired to villas are, though. I used to deal with Travel Insurance claims and there were frequently claims from people who lived overseas (they weren't covered) either for private treatment rather than the normal healthcare provided as part of the reciprocal agreement, or because they'd decided they wanted to get treatment free from English hospitals (with a frequent side order of 'nobody speaks English here'), they'd be trying to get free flights and accommodation in the UK.

There is a lot of difference between somebody who is living and working overseas and wouldn't see the need to travel back and the older people deciding the heart or lung problems that led to them selling up and retiring into the sun in the first place now need to be treated by the NHS when they have no right to expect it.

There will be sadface articles about 'paying into the system all my life except for the twenty years in Spain, but got to the hospital and foreigners were being treated for free and they said I had to pay'.

@viques Did you miss the part where I'm paying tax as a resident?

There must be some people taking the piss, but it's unfair to paint that as a large proportion. It's like benefits cheats, there aren't as many as the papers want you to believe

the form is asking me for information on which country I have come from and purpose of my stay in the UK etc so I think the wrong end of the stick has been got at some point

It sounds like it might have done, yes - but anything bureaucratic usually involves a mess being made at some point

That said, I'm glad in principle that they're checking; after all it's a national health service, not an international one

There must be crazy local and regional variation here - my DDs have both had hospital treatment (in two different hospitals in our patch) and we have not been asked for proof of eligibility. It would have been tricky, since at the time they were both under 18 and with no bills in their name - but they were born here and have always lived here.

I wonder how much this admin is costing the NHS. I would be far better to have a simple ID card system for everyone irrespective of nationality.

There must be some people taking the piss, but it's unfair to paint that as a large proportion. It's like benefits cheats, there aren't as many as the papers want you to believe

Yes. There are definitely some health tourists but it is a tiny proportion of patients by any estimate. Over 99% of the people seen by my NHS Trust are ordinarily resident and entitled to free care. Of the 1% who aren’t less than half have to pay anything due to reciprocal arrangements. Most of these do pay only a few avoid payment.

asleepallday

No I didn't. Did you miss the part in my post where I pointed out that NHS support is dependant on the NI payments of many people, over many years since the inception of the NHS who have collectively contributed to the infrastructure of the NHS, to training and resources. Your contributions are now paying towards the continuation of those resources for others, thankyou for that.

I wonder how much this admin is costing the NHS.

Less than the cost of treatment for those who are not legally entitled to it, I’ll venture. In the long run.

Please let’s not forget how many essential services are being jeopardised because of funding (and some poor decision-making by trusts, but never mind).

It’s important to ensure everyone who is treated, notwithstanding A&E, has fully qualified for treatment. And it’s important to ensure money is recouped in those cases where repayment/country agreements are in place.

Yes, there will be an admin cost, but we need to look at sound financial management if we hope and expect the NHS to survive. I’m happy to fill out every form going if it helps.