Passport checks considered for pregnant NHS patients

[LurkingHusband]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37621239

Pregnant patients could have to prove they are eligible for free NHS treatment by showing ID such as a valid passport, under plans being considered by one London hospital.
St George's says the checks would help tackle health tourism and would only be for non-urgent patients - emergency cases would get automatic care.
^It says such a move is in line with what guidelines recommend.
But critics say the checks could be potentially dangerous.^
St George's says it has a duty to use resources wisely, as well as provide care and treatment to patients requiring the hospital's services. The hospital has a high number of patients from overseas who are not eligible for NHS treatment.
The government said a pilot was a good idea and it would be keen to see the results.

(contd)

It is possible to precis the story as "The only thing worse than a foreigner, is a poor foreigner".

Pik, if 30 percent of your patients are from E Europe then they qualify through E111 scheme or whatever it's called. They are EU citizens and provided they have the card, they are entitled to whatever we are entitled to. As we would be anywhere in EU.

Undersmile

Children born in the UK to parents who are not British citizens and do not have indefinite leave to remain do not acquire British citizenship by birth. They have the right to be registered as British citizens once at least one of the parents obtains a settled status (or receives indefinite leave to remain).

This is what I meant. Deep apologies.
People take the piss because they can.

Undersmile

You’re automatically a British citizen if you were born in the UK after 1 January 1983 and 1 of your parents was a British citizen or settled here at that time. You don’t need to register.

The majority of other countries require you to prove you're entitled to health care before you get it. Obviously if you turned up in labour or seriously injured they'd treat first, as do most other countries,
Here in Sweden you see the receptionist and give them your personal number.
It should be the same for NHS.

It's not about vulnerable women in the UK, or about poor foreigners, this is about health tourists exploiting the system, women in advanced state of pregnant, often with high risk pregnancies who come here with the intention the give birth free of charge and in a better environment than home.

I agree that they should be targeting all other forms of health tourism, not just the pregnant women.

Yes, I know EU citizens are entitled to care....as I said so in my post. So I don't know why the foreign dept in the hospital ring up asking about non british people. I don't see its my job to police it anyway. We have a computerised admission system, the foreign dept need to be looking at that and not ringing wards!

I have a British passport. I'm currently not eligible for free NHS treatment, as I don't reside in the UK.
I have friends without a British passport, who have work visas, and have been in the UK for nearly 10 years. He is, I assume, entitled to free NHS treatment. Your passport on its own, without in depth understanding of visas isn't going to cut it.

I don't see what's so hard about asking for someone's NHS number when they enter the doctors surgery/hospital.

Should be easy enough.

Where I live you definitely need medical insurance to obtain a visa. No way of getting a visa without it.

Mmmhhh ok so I am not British but I live, work and pay my taxes here (11 years of that).
How is checking my passport going to check that??
Are there Brits living abroad and coming here for treatment?
Isnt there a communal EU pot for this, I believe so, which is why Brits can go to my home countrySpain and get free medical care.
So what are we exactly checking here??? Entitlement to free treatment or again making us foreigners feel like crap?

Why not just mark us with a big scarlet F on our foreheads?

And yes to those that say NHS number is a more relevant piece of info than a passport

A friend of a relation has recently come over from Kenya to have her second child here. She want a cs this time . She and her husband have lived in Kenya for a number of years where they both have well paid professional jobs. they will be staying with her parents before and after the birth until she and the baby are ready to fly home. I am not sure how they have got round the no GP, no early maternity checks etc but there you go.

Even NHS number doesn't really help. if I emigrated my NHS number would stay the same so I could easily pop back and use it without actually living here.

If there have to be checks then everybody, no matter how British they are or aren't, needs to carry and NHS card with their NHS number on it.

As many others are pointing out, having a British passport has only a vague and partial relevance to being entitled to use the NHS and nobody should be making this into a vehicle for xenophobia.

The home office has started putting entitlement to NHS treatment as a field on the national SPINE record but I believe this is only for new arrivals so won't capture expats either.

Gamer I suppose it should show up as invalid if you aren't paying national insurance (or having it covered via benefits or as a dependent). But there isn't the system in place to make that work afaik

I think it is the norm in most European countries to go through formalities to establish the basis on which you will be receiving healthcare and who will be settling the bill. I certainly had to give my civil registration number in Sweden and the bill was posted home after I gave birth. Usually you register and pay with the recptinist before outpatient/GP care

However the UK are rubbish at this - there appear to be no systems in many places. When we were in holiday in Britain my daughter needed to see a GP and we went with our passports and European health cards but the staff seemed to have no idea what to do with them.

Good news. Perhaps it's time we introduced ID cards.

evergreen as an European citizen you're entitled to treatment. As someone non British but working and paying U.K. Tax you'd be entitled to treatment.
I'm a Brit living in Sweden- I have a personal number here and thus im eligible for treatment here even though I'm not a citizen- I have zero issue with being asked to show my ID, it's not a problem here...

This isn't about xenophobia- it's the same checks the rest of the world do (including Spain I think..?)

gizmo not really a point for this thread, but surely British citizens should be allowed to register their children as British, don't you think?

Don't see a problem with it, except passports don't show right to treatment, but verifying that someone has the right to treatment makes sense. I was in Britain in August and fell ill and had to go to A&E, I explained that I'm not a resident but as I was visiting my parents they wanted me to just write down on the form the info of my parents' GP surgery - I insisted on writing down my details so hopefully my costs were chased up from my country.

But thehubbles me showing my passport doesnt tell them anything about me being a resident and a tax payer and entitled to care. So why ask for it?

Undersmile
If they are British yes. If they are foreign NO!
We wouldn't get the privilege in their countries. So why should they in ours.

If they're foreign they can't- you said so in your post.

evergreen agree about the passports - I wonder if they actually mean passports or 'valid ID.'

The uk should have ID cards/personal numbers like we do here. It's so efficient...

I don't need to be a Swedish citizen to get healthcare but I do need to be resident and entitled. You are resident and entitled (same situation I'm in I suppose.)

Technically now I need an EHIC card to get uk health care.

Gizmo doing his/her bit for the Remainers there....

I don't think most NHS staff have a clue what to do with you when you give non British details. My (parents') surgery is more comfortable with me writing down their address (falsely) as my address. Less paperwork I presume.