Yesterdays potential day billing was sent mostly sitting in A+E (and sleeping)

[vetran]

Frankly I believe they should turn away anyone with non emergency issues at Triage.

But I also believe A&E's should have a 24 hr policeman.

Any doubt about nationality then start taking fingerprints to check residence status.

[The Spartan]

Any doubt about nationality then start taking fingerprints to check residence status.

Can you imagine the uproar? I would personally be in favour of this and a similar system to that of the US when people enter the country they have their fingerprints and photo taken.

[vetran]

Can you imagine the uproar? I would personally be in favour of this and a similar system to that of the US when people enter the country they have their fingerprints and photo taken.

Can you imagine the uproar if Tourists or illegal immigrants ran bank jobs daily stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds each time? That is basically what is happening, people can't or won't pay for care in their home country arrive here and take it. They are self selecting expensive, if their health problems were cheap they wouldn't be here.

Increases in TB & HIV are both driven by immigration and IMO health tourism.

Individually I sympathise with each persons circumstance but overall its a bad thing.

Its about time we started protecting our NHS otherwise we will be forced private.

[The Spartan]

I'm with you on this after coming here to Zurich and having to pay for private health insurance I am able to see first hand just how much everything costs. Basically it's healthcare tourism people come over decide to stay and then think "ahh I'll ship over my relatives and they can get their ailments treated for free" this of course is helping to sink the NHS

[sasguru]

Can you imagine the uproar? I would personally be in favour of this and a similar system to that of the US when people enter the country they have their fingerprints and photo taken.

Can you imagine the uproar if Tourists or illegal immigrants ran bank jobs daily stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds each time? That is basically what is happening, people can't or won't pay for care in their home country arrive here and take it. They are self selecting expensive, if their health problems were cheap they wouldn't be here.

Increases in TB & HIV are both driven by immigration and IMO health tourism.

Individually I sympathise with each persons circumstance but overall its a bad thing.

Its about time we started protecting our NHS otherwise we will be forced private.

I'm with you on this after coming here to Zurich and having to pay for private health insurance I am able to see first hand just how much everything costs. Basically it's healthcare tourism people come over decide to stay and then think "ahh I'll ship over my relatives and they can get their ailments treated for free" this of course is helping to sink the NHS

Good rants not borne out by the figures.

I searched for NHS health tourism losses and found this:
BBC News - Overseas 'health tourists' costing NHS at least £40m

First of all, people from around the world are NOT allowed to use the NHS.
But some get through the system. This costs acoording to that article £10 million a year.
The NHS budget in 2011 was £121 billion.

So illegal health tourism costs 0.0083% of the health budget i.e. virtually nothing.

[northernladuk]

Good rants not borne out by the figures.

I searched for NHS health tourism losses and found this:
BBC News - Overseas 'health tourists' costing NHS at least £40m

First of all, people from around the world are NOT allowed to use the NHS.
But some get through the system. This costs acoording to that article £10 million a year.
The NHS budget in 2011 was £121 billion.

So illegal health tourism costs 0.0083% of the health budget i.e. virtually nothing.

If that 10 million can be put back in to a trust to stop one extra person dying it isn't virtually nothing IMO.

Does 'Health Tourism' take in to account immigrants or just people popping over for some treatment and then going back?

Migration Watch appear to have numbers that make for some grim reading and is not £10mil

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...-NHS-bill.html

[formant]

Good rants not borne out by the figures.

I searched for NHS health tourism losses and found this:
BBC News - Overseas 'health tourists' costing NHS at least £40m

First of all, people from around the world are NOT allowed to use the NHS.
But some get through the system. This costs acoording to that article £10 million a year.
The NHS budget in 2011 was £121 billion.

So illegal health tourism costs 0.0083% of the health budget i.e. virtually nothing.

I think you'll find that the people who whinge about 'illegal' health tourism are actually mostly concerned with foreign nationals accessing the NHS through perfectly legal means (foreign students and their partners on spousal visas for example, or EU migrants).

It's like UKIP quoting figures of 'illegal immigrants' and counting perfectly legal EU migrants into that for propaganda purposes.

[vetran]

No we are arguing more about health tourism!

Health tourism: why the NHS became popular destination - Telegraph

Soon afterwards West Middlesex Hospital – close to Heathrow Airport – was disclosed to be the first to demand foreign patients that they pay before treatment.
Yet the practice does not appear to have spread, and Friday’s proposals will only catch health tourists who attempt to return to Britain or extend their visas having previously failed to pay for hospital care.
The debts of any patients who leave the country after being treated, never to return, will remain almost impossible to recover.

Overseas patients owe health service £60m - Telegraph

The figures reveal that hospitals threatened with closures over mounting debts have written off some of the highest amounts. Imperial College trust, which is £100 million in debt and in the process of making major cuts, is owed £2.5 million and has written off a further £2 million.
The trust for Chase Farm hospital, in north London, which received a bail-out from the Challenged Trust Board and is being forced to close its A&E department, has a foreign debt of £2.5 million.

I would suggest this is the tip of the iceberg, I'm fairly dark skinned think Italian / Turkish (I suspect a few Grand parents back may have been the wrong side of the blanket), have a weird surname more common in Australia than UK and have never been asked about my eligibility.

But if you are in A&E and between drunk eastern European (not Polish) and Indian/African people who can't speak basic english you have to assume some of them might not have a right to free care.

[vetran]

And the rapid turning away of non emergency at A&E should be done regardless of eligibility we need to reclaim A&E.

Those with Alcohol related violence injuries should be dealt with by the police as well.

[stek]

Yesterdays potential day billing was sent mostly sitting in A+E (and sleeping)

Only those on tourist visas or other non-LTR visas have no right to free NHS treatment. Everyone is entitled to emergency treatment tho, I think that would also be the case all over the World, apart from USA probably!