Transporting patients from London to Belfast, will the NHS do it?

[MoreThanImFeeling]

I'm struggling with finding travel insurance for my Mum, who is travelling to England to see a medical specialist. We are worried about what would happen if she became ill while travelling?

Is she being referred by the nhs? Is so they will pay it. If it’s private, she’s on her own or your private medical insurance may pay?

So, for example I live in Shetland but hip replacements are done in Glasgow so the NHS pays for the flight (if I was too poorly it’d be air ambulance transfer) but I have BUPA and they’d happily send me anywhere but I have to pay and organise my own flights etc to access it.

No she's seeing the consultant privately - finally managed to get travel insurance - let's hope we don't need it!

That’s great that you got it sorted!

A company called Mark Bates Ltd specialise in insurance for disabled people so could be worth a look. I found they respond to claims v.quick too (admittedly that was claiming on my wheelchair policy).

Another insurance company who specialise is Fish but I didn’t find them as responsive.

Yes, if they’re well enough to travel. It’s cheaper to transfer than use a bed in an out of area trust. If an out of area bed is used the home trust is billed, which makes them keen to transfer home ASAP.

Im currently in an English hospital, I am from Northern Ireland so if you want to chat about this, let me know as I've literally just done this in reverse