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May 29th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Staff working at Southend Hospital in Essex must ask patients if they have lived in the UK for the past year
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Strict new rules have been introduced after an increase in overseas visitors not eligible for free NHS care
By
Sophie Borland and Andrew Levy
06:31 EST, 28 May 2012
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21:42 EST, 28 May 2012
Patients are having to prove they are entitled to free NHS care when they go to hospital in a crackdown on health tourism.
They are asked for evidence showing they have lived in Britain for at least a year by producing bills, pay slips or bank statements.
The one-year rule has existed for many years but has clearly not been effectively enforced.
Clampdown: Staff working at Southend Hospital in Essex must ask patients if they have lived in the country for the past 12 months
Recent figures suggested that as much as £40million is owed to hospitals by so-called health tourists who have been treated but never paid their bills.
The checks apply to outpatients and those admitted to wards, but not to emergency cases, who will be looked after regardless.
The scheme has been introduced to identify foreign patients who try to get free care on the NHS, despite not being eligible.
Doctors and nurses at Southend University Hospital in Essex ask all patients coming in for the first time whether they have lived in the country for at least a year.
HEALTH TOURISTS TAKE MORE THAN £35M OF FREE TREATMENT SINCE 2004
Health Minister Simon Burns (pictured) last year revealed that health tourists have taken at least £35million of free treatment over the last eight years.
That is the sum health service bosses have written off after foreign patients came to the UK for treatment – and left without paying.
The Department of Health is still trying to recover millions more from thousands of others who have abused British hospitality, so the real figure could be far higher.
Entitlement to free NHS hospital treatment is based on a patient being ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK.
Anyone else will be charged for the full cost of any treatment they receive unless an exemption applies to the particular therapy.
While treatment in an accident and emergency department is automatically free to all, emergency care elsewhere is not.
However urgent treatment, such as maternity care, will always be given regardless of residence status or ability to pay afterwards.
UK Border Agency officials see 150 cases a year at Gatwick Airport of heavily pregnant passengers arriving with visitor visas.
Last year the Home Office and Department of Health admitted the existing system ‘is still too complex, generous and inconsistently applied.’
They promised stricter checks to make sure the details of overseas patients are properly recorded so hospitals can recover any debt.
Also those visitors who have run up £1,000 or more in medical debts will not be allowed back into the country.
They may also double check by going back through medical records of previous treatment.
And if staff are still suspicious, they will ask patients to provide proof of address.
Julie Alabaster, private and business manager at Southend hospital, said the expansion of the nearby airport and coastal port could lead to an increase in the number of health tourists.
She added: ‘We know that people won’t always tell the truth and we won’t be able to capture everyone.
‘But we need to be doing everything we can to get money back from patients who are not entitled to NHS treatment for free.’
She said those who were ineligible for free treatment would be asked to pay by cash or via a chip and pin machine brought to their beds.
The trust is owed £64,913 by health tourists.
But many trusts are out of pocket by far more, including St George’s in South London, which is owed £2million.
Tory MP Chris Skidmore, who has been exposing the cost of health tourists to the NHS, said: ‘This is a very sensible idea, for which the hospital should be commended.
‘All NHS trusts should be applying this test which should be rolled out nationally.
‘We need to get a grip on the issue of foreign nationals abusing the NHS – it is a national health service, not an international one.’
Similar schemes have also been introduced at The Hillingdon Hospitals Foundation Trust in West London, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust in Surrey.
Last month, figures obtained by Pulse magazine through freedom of information requests showed that hospitals were owed an average of £230,000 from health tourists.
Yet despite the crackdown on health tourists, it has also emerged that some doctors have been threatened with legal action if they do not treat illegal immigrants.
One surgery in Essex was recently told by human rights lawyers they would be taken to court if they refused to add a group of failed asylum seekers to their books.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: ‘Hospitals have a legal duty to recover any charges made to overseas patients.
‘We have changed the immigration rules so that anyone with an unpaid debt to the NHS of £1,000 or more can be refused a new visa.’
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Like anyone in their right mind would willingly take their chances with the broken down NHS!
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Yes that’s all very well, but what about the citizens of countries with which the UK has a reciprocal health deal i.e. Australia New Zealand? If an Australian Citizen needs medical or surgical treatment in the UK the cost of that treatment is repaid by the Australian Government and vice versa.
– Happy ex-pat and glad to be, Brisbane, Australia, 29/5/2012 02:48
The reciprocal agreement only covers emergency care and the article says this policy does NOT extend to emergency care- anyone will get that. The treatment they are talking about is rather more planned.
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Where as in Norway, you actually have to live here and PAY IN TO THE SYSTEM for 3 years before you are entitled to full benefits. I am happy I left the UK, our system is far superior in every way.
FREE CARD The fee we pay (we don’t pay prescription charges) is to pay the first £150/£200 a year up front, for whatever – drugs, travel, £20 to see a doctor, £8 for a blood test kind of thing. Once you reach that limit you get a free card and everything after that is free for that year, but you have to pay first, this makes people think twice about scamming the system. So we have an excellent system, used (not abused) by people who have paid in, and people are happy to pay because the service is second to none. I love this country. Good luck with yours.
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ONE Year? Should be at least TEN.
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I hope the NHS Staff are not using some ‘National Database’ to check !
So just HOW will any verbal statement or paperwork offered be verified and approved ?
Then what ? If these Health Tourists don’t pass … Do they go round to AE to get IMMEDIATE treatment ?
Just curious, because I’M still waiting just for a GP’s Appt.
Only another 3 weeks to wait !
I hope I am still ILL when it comes round !
Revolting UK Tax Paying Pensioner !
That’s ME !!!
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its about time something like this happen they will find away of getting treatment by using someone else Id here take my Id to the hospital it also need photo Id
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At last! In France you don’t get treatment if you can’t prove you’ve paid into the system, and it should be the same here. I work in the NHS and it breaks my heart to see people who live abroad getting free treatment because it’s making the wait longer for the rest of us. The problem is more with GP surgeries: they don’t check, and once someone has registered with a GP it’s an open door for free treatment everywhere. And another thing: just because you have a British passport doesn’t entitle you to free care. People forget this! You have to have paid in!!
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Make a killing in places like Bradford?
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I work in an IVF unit and we treat hundreds of EU Nationals every year, who can get up to 6 ‘free’ cycles a year, but no one makes any record of who and how many there are. We are effectively the EHS now.
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Just ask for their medical travel insurance details – when its confirmed, treat them. No insurance, a £10000 bond or no treatment. that’s how most other countries work in the Asia, N.America or Europe, even for AE.
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