Re: "Health Tourists take precedence over British Patients !
Originally Posted by
Goldielocks
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I can guarantee health tourist do not take priority over NHS patient's. They have private health insurance.
How can you possibly guarantee this are you situated in every health authority hospital. And how do you know they all have health insurance do you know each one personally .
I believe many
don't have health insurance, there have been lots of programmes on TV about this subject .
Deliberate' use of the NHS—use by those who come here specifically to receive free treatment or who come for other reasons but take advantage of the system when they're here—is hard to quantify. It's thought to be very roughly between £110 million and £280 million a year.
'Normal' use of the NHS—by foreign visitors who've ended up being treated while in England—is estimated to cost about £1.8 billion a year.
The majority of these costs aren't currently charged for. Only about £500 million is thought to be recoverable or chargeable at the moment.
Who do you think of when you hear the term 'health tourist'? A Spaniard who breaks a leg while on holiday in the UK? An American travelling here deliberately to use the NHS for free? What about a British expat who comes home every now and then to see their old, trusted GP?
All of them can be seen as 'health tourists' in that they've come from somewhere else and may have received healthcare in the UK for free. But for some the cost of their treatment is recoverable and for others it isn't. Keeping track of these cases is exceptionally difficult and so is working out the cost to the country.
https://fullfact.org/health/health-t...-and-who-pays/
There is a shortage of beds in many hospitals here, every bed and place in an A and E department taken by a 'health tourist' is depriving someone else of a place. Therefore many 'health tourists are
'taking precedence over British Patients' because we don't turn them away.
In many instances it is a 'first come first serve health service' regardless of where people come from until a services is full to capacity (A&E and Maternity in particular) .