Help! Can you go to hospital in a different healthboard?

[heartshapedlollypop]

Just unsure if it’s allowed or not! I’m in edinburgh but work in Glasgow, so I live and work in different healthboards. I was recently really unwell at work and nearly had to go to A&E (I have a chronic condition which if uncontrolled and flared up can leave me admitted to hospital) thankfully I was fine but I suddenly realised I wasn’t even sure if I was allowed to go to A&E outside my healthboard? In this case it would be Glasgow as i would be too sick to drive home to Edinburgh, thankfully I was ok but just in case it happens again, would I be allowed to go to A&E straight from work in Glasgow? Or would I be expected to drive back to my own healthboard? And if I ended up admitted to hospital would they let me stay in Glasgow or would I have to go back to Edinburgh once the immediate emergency is over?

TIA. It’s not something I ever thought about but this job is relatively new to me and I just want to make sure that I know what to do if I’m ever unwell again at it (although hopefully I won’t!)

You're ill where you're ill. Frequently see patients out of area in our hospital!

Yes of course! If you need to go to A and E then you just go whenever you are.

For emergency care absolutely yes! You can even go to A&E in England, Wales or Northern Ireland if you need to.

Routine care and referrals are more complex.

You can go to any a&e you like! What would happen if you were on holiday? You can’t exactly travel from say Devon to Edinburgh.

Sometimes we transfer inpatients back to their local if they’re going to be in a long time, for example weeks of antibiotics. Although it can take a while as we have to wait for a bed to become available.