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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask you all to please help me out here. My mother is insisting this is true ...

94 replies

fluffyraggies · 09/10/2012 16:40

..... that if you get hospital treatment as a result of a traffic accident you have to PAY for it. And if you cant pay for it you have have to claim off your car insurance.

Ay ???????

I have never in all my days heard this ?!?!? I was Confused and Hmm when she said it.

I've been driving for years and have always sorted my own car insurance and have never ever come across this in any of the paper work. She doesn't drive and never has. But she is adamant she's correct on this.

Am i being really thick here?

OP posts:
RandallPinkFloyd · 09/10/2012 17:00

Blimey!

I knew about the ambulance thing but not that last bit! Shock

I know the first doctor on scene is entitled to bill for his services but I've never known one actually do it.

NatashaBee · 09/10/2012 17:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jerryfudd · 09/10/2012 17:01

Post crossed with fluffy

7to25 · 09/10/2012 17:03

the NHS can charge via the insurance
I was in a collision with an insured driver going the wrong way down the motorway and his insurance paid for some of my hospital stay (NHS)

Tinuviel · 09/10/2012 17:20

A kid ran into the side of my mum's car in the late 1970s and she was sent the bill for the ambulance. I seem to remember it was £11. She was very annoyed as he had run straight out into the road and dented the back door of her car (so he had hit her rather than the other way round) but as the driver she was automatically deemed to have been 'at fault'. Fortunately for him, she was driving very slowly as he had got off the same bus as my brother and as it was raining, she had slowed down ready to stop and give DB a lift.

I seem to remember a few years later my DB being in a car that went off the road and the driver was sent a bill for £55 as there were 5 people in the car - only 1 ambulance though!

eileenf · 09/10/2012 17:37

RTA charges have been recoverable from drivers insurance for many many years - since before the NHS existed in fact (1934).

OldCatLady · 09/10/2012 17:41

Errrmmm well last year I had a car accident, totally my fault, I got taken to hospital in an ambulance and treated there...never got a bill! Never heard of such a thing!

Original poster
fluffyraggies · 09/10/2012 17:56

Thank you for all your input - i knew nothing of any of this!

Well it seems such a hit and miss affair though (genuinely no pun intended) as to whether you get billed. £20 to £30 for an ambulance - fair enough i suppose. But i'm surprised car ins. covers treatment. It seems so random ...

I'm really flaberghasted (sp?) in fact.

OP posts:
Moominsarescary · 09/10/2012 18:09

You can get billed for the ambulance if they don't think it was needed

My exp got billed for a lamp post £1000

jamdonut · 09/10/2012 18:18

This has been around for years...I thought it was common knowledge that you can be charged ,particularly after a traffic accident, for an ambulance? Not that it has ever happened to me,but I used to work in an NHS hospital (clerical staff).

carabos · 09/10/2012 18:30

My DM was in an accident a few years ago - she was charged for the ambulance and had to pay it as she was hit by an uninsured driver.

clam · 09/10/2012 18:34

My brother was charged for his ambulance - no false alarms there! The paramedics took one look at his car (which had skidded on ice, someraulted over a barrier and down an embankment and ended up headfirst in a treetrunk) and said "that poor bugger's had it" and then realised he was still alive and they leapt into action to rescue him.

He still had to pay. Is it fair to assume that all those who say it's rubbish, haven't ever tested it out?

FryOneGhoulishGhostlyManic · 09/10/2012 18:36

There are large signs all over our GP surgery stating that under the Road TRaffic Act they can make charges for treatment received as a result of a road traffic accident. Whether they do charge is another matter entirely.

We are in the Midlands.

ChaoticismyLife · 09/10/2012 18:41

Years ago my ex was in an accident, he skidded on ice, on the way home from work early christmas day morning. He went to A&E later on in the day where he was diagnosed with whiplash. He was sent a bill later in the post.

FireOverBabylon · 09/10/2012 18:43

Your mum is correct OP. I think it's the person who is found to have caused the accident - the most negligent driver etc.

MissHuffy · 09/10/2012 18:47

I've been billed by A&E although I think it was a "standard fee" and didn't reflect the treatment.

Now, being charged for A&E in US was a whooooole different thing!!

spoonsspoonsspoons · 09/10/2012 18:48

Took friends to A&E when they'd put their car in a ditch when we were in sixth form. They had to pay a sum at the hospital (about 15 quid) as it was a result of a road traffic accident (no ambulance involved).

ginmakesitallok · 09/10/2012 18:50

Yes NHS can recoup costs from insurers as far as I know - but they wouldn't bill an individual I think?

McHappyPants2012 · 09/10/2012 18:54

Yes she is right

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 09/10/2012 18:55

I have never heard of this before Shock I am genuinely shocked that people who have had car accidents are billed for the ambulance

KenLeeeeeee · 09/10/2012 18:56

Never heard of anything like this about hospital treatment, but there was something in the news the other days about RTA victims being billed for by the companies the Highways Agency use to clear the roads after an accident or breakdown.

Lemme find the link...

Here we go: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19833237

piratecat · 09/10/2012 18:59

was involved in a car prang yrs ago, and the driver got the bill for the ambulance we went in. Accident was his fault, we didn't have any bad injuries.

neverputasockinatoaster · 09/10/2012 19:07

I have been to A and E twice as a result of an RTA. The first time I was the driver (not my fault) and the second time I was a passenger (not the driver's fault).

The first time I was charged under the RTA but told to pass the bill to my insuance company. The guy who hit me paid the bill ( or rather his insurers did).

The second time my friend got a bill. Her insurance company passed it on to the woman who hit her. No ambulance was needed either time.

mrsrosieb · 09/10/2012 19:18

I worked in an A&E for 3 years. No-one was ever charged for ambulance transport-even one woman who commanded an ambulance for breaking a false nail!
One guy came in 3 times with a broken leg, only to miraculously get off the stretcher and walk off. After a police investigation it turned out he lived near the hospital and called an ambulance as a taxi home following a night out in the pub. Even he did not get charged for the ambulance-although he did end up on community service.

catstail · 09/10/2012 20:21

you are charged for road traffic accident treatment because it is what third party liability insurance (what everyone has to have on their car) is allo about - recompensing the third party, ie the one who you ran over.

So if you run someone over, and you have insurance, then I dont see why the nhs shouldnt claim for that