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26-06-2019, 05:14 PM
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Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

To be quite honest, When I read this headline in the Daily Mail today, I had to think hard to believe it wasn’t April 1st and this was some form of joke! Apparently not! Those left-wing bullying BMA representatives are an absolute disgrace. Read below and come to your own conclusion.
The BMA is accused of “inviting the whole world in” as it calls for foreign patient fees to be axed”.

QUOTE

Doctors: “It’s Racist To Charge NHS Health Visitors”.

Doctors have voted to stop billing foreign patients for NHS care.
Medics backing the motion said charging visitors made medical staff “complicit in racism”.

Up to 500 delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of abandoning the fees at the British Medical Association’s annual conference in Belfast.
“We are Doctors, not border guards,” said Dr Omar Risk in Monday’s debate, “Charging migrant’s for accessing NHS services is a fundamentally racist endeavour - we are complicit in the oppressive regime”.

Doctors who opposed the move were booed as they spoke.

Conservative MPs said that opening up the NHS to the rest of the world was reckless when its resources were so stretched.
Health tourism is thought to cost anything from £200million to £2billion a year. The BMA, which is one of the country’s most powerful trade unions, will now lobby the Department of Health to overhaul the charging system.

Although the government sets the rules, they function only if doctors follow them.
Tory MP Andrew Percy said: “It is incredible that some doctors want to open up the NHS to health tourism from people overseas who haven’t paid in! Perhaps instead, Doctors who support this could pay for the treatment of these people themselves”.”Most people would expect our NHS services to be reserved for those who are living here permanently and who are contributing to our system”.

Fellow Conservative MP Phillip Hollobone said: “The BMA is completely out of touch with public opinion on this issue. There is nothing racist about charging international tourists for the care they receive over here. Every pound spent treating health tourists is a pound not spent on British citizens.”
Only patients ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK - usually for at least six months - are eligible for free NHS care.
EU citizens can also get it for free, provided they have an EHIC card.
Everyone else should be charged up front before treatment begins and doctors, nurses and receptionists are legally obliged to check a patient’s status first.

The only situations where this does not apply are those involving lifesaving procedures or treatment in A&E units. GP surgeries are also free for all. But, the rules will work only if doctors cooperate, particularly as they hold so much authority in individual hospitals and departments.

In the BMA debate on the issue on Monday night, a motion was proposed arguing that it was “not cost effective to monitor eligibility for NHS Care”. It called for the policy of charging migrants for NHS care to be abandoned and for the NHS to be free for all at the point of delivery.”

Dr Jackie Appleby, who proposed the motion, said charging immigrants for NHS care was a form of ‘racial profiling’ and not cost-effective. She said: “The cost of treating migrants and overseas visitors on the NHS is a drop in the ocean compared to the overall budget. The cost of health tourism is disputed. It’s peanuts in the grand scheme of things.”

Speaking against the motion, Dr George Rae said dropping fees would undoubtedly encourage health tourism. He said: “The message coming from the BMA is - get on the plane, get on the boat, because you will get treatment on the NHS for nothing!”
Dr Duried Syad Ali, also opposing the motion, said: “Every year we complain about a lack of resources and complain about how much pressure the NHS is under. But this motion is putting more pressure on the NHS and depriving it of possible resources. Accepting this motion is sending the wrong message to the world, inviting everyone to free health care.”

THE MOTION WAS PASSED OVERWHELMINGLY.

Dr John Chisholm, who chairs the BMA’s ethics committee, said yesterday that members felt strongly that NHS care must be free at the point of delivery.” He added: “Charges deter people from seeking the care they need, this damages not only their own health but may have implications for public health too.”

The BMA will now urge the Department of Health to consider abandoning charges altogether or at least reducing the costs for certain foreign patients.

Two years ago a scathing report by the Commons public accounts committee revealed that hospitals were failing to identify health tourists let alone charge them for treatment.
The findings prompted the Dept of Health to issue new guidelines in October 2017 requiring staff to check all patients status beforehand.

Many hospitals will ask to see passports or utility bills to confirm patients have been living here for at least six months. Patients who admit they are not ordinarily resident or refuse to provide documentation should be taken into a side room and interviewed by an Overseas Visitor Officer.
They will be asked further questions to ascertain if they are from the EU and if so, the Government will bill their member state. Otherwise, patients will be given an invoice for the course of treatment and if they do not pay up, staff should refuse to provide care.

But the cooperation of doctors is required because they are usually the most senior members of the ward or department.

The NHS is facing an unprecedented financial crisis due to the ageing population, the toll of life-style related conditions such as obesity and diabetes and the cost of expensive new drugs.

A Department of Health spokesman said: ”British taxpayers support the NHS, and it is only right that overseas visitors also make a contribution to our Health Service so everyone can receive urgent care when they need it. ‘We have exemptions in place to protect public health and the most vulnerable patients’.

UNQUOTE.

Well, there was steam coming out of my ears even as I was typing this! What ruddy planet do these Union Barons on the BMA live on for goodness sake? I worked full time for over 52 years and paid contributions just as every worker in this country did and does, to allow us to have treatment on the NHS. Do these cretins think we did/do so to allow the rest of the world to come and claim it for free on our backs?

It costs £163,000 for every Doctor in this country to qualify. If this is the calibre that we end up with, I really do despair.

What are your views on this please?
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26-06-2019, 05:23 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

That doctor wants his /her head seeing too.

Funny it's not racist anywhere else in the entire world .

In Spain they might well be wheeling your nearest and dearest to the ICU abut at the same time they will be directing you firmly to the desk where they take your payment details !
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26-06-2019, 05:30 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

Honest you couldnt make it up ..... it makes me so mad... we can't cope with our own people without what amounts to inviting the whole world in for free health care.
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26-06-2019, 05:30 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

Originally Posted by Muddy ->
That doctor wants his /her head seeing too.

Funny it's not racist anywhere else in the entire world .

In Spain they might well be wheeling your nearest and dearest to the ICU abut at the same time they will be directing you firmly to the desk where they take your payment details !
Very true Muddy. Try getting beyond reception in the USA too. Even putting a plaster over a cut has to be paid for. Once you are behind the curtain in the USA, you have already been vetted as being able to pay.
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26-06-2019, 05:32 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

Whatever next! This really takes some believing doesn't it?

I worked for 55 years and paid into the NHS all that time. In total I've had one small operation, two weeks' stay in hospital and two other small procedures after a heart attack and now I get free prescriptions.

Dental treatment has been almost non-existent once the cost became similar to private treatment.

On three occasions I was asked for identity before treatment could begin. I hardly look foreign and don't even have a sun tan or a passport so obviously one of the indigenous population!

After paying in £ thousands and £ thousands only to find it's covering foreigners' medical treatment I reckon it's time I put in for a FULL rebate. Especially as the NHS is struggling nowadays, so we are told.

This country is going / has gone to the dogs, I am convinced of it. The sooner this rip-off is stopped the better.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...hospitals.html
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26-06-2019, 06:00 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

These do gooders will be the death of the NHS.

I can't be trusted to type what I'm really thinking, as I might say something I'll regret!!
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26-06-2019, 06:22 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

I know just how you feel Jazzi. I wonder what those BMA morons would think if we all stopped contributing, their lazy attitude at having to actually do the work needed to ensure the NHS survives, would soon come to nought if we plebs were not handing over our taxes in order to fund their stupid grandoise scheme to be fairy godmother to the world and his family.

Perhaps these top Docs resent the fact that the extra paperwork they have been charged to do to deter overseas health visitors, interferes with their game of Golf!
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26-06-2019, 06:50 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

I don't see what it has to do with the doctors. The comment "Drs are not border guards" is correct. It's not up to them to vet patients and check whether they are eligible for free treatment. If they are being put into this position by the Home office or NHS then of course that's wrong.

I don't think anyone here picked up on the fact that this is a doctor's body and they are saying that this is not a doctor's job. Quite right too! If people are to be vetted then it should be before they reach a doctor or nurse. If those systems are not in place then doctors should not be put under any pressure to withhold treatment. It's not their fault if the system is not working. Doctors and other medics are there to treat and not to check passports.

As I've said before this all comes back to the home office not having control over who is here. They put onus on banks, landlords and now doctors to be border guards. What should be happening is that there is a robust system in place to keep track of the people who are not citizens. It's not ok to pass the buck onto people who are not being paid to police the border!


People coming here from countries that do not have reciprocal agreements should have to prove that they have health insurance before they are granted a visa by the British consulate in their home country. That's what should be put into place. No health insurance/no visa.
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26-06-2019, 06:54 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

Originally Posted by shropshiregirl ->
I know just how you feel Jazzi. I wonder what those BMA morons would think if we all stopped contributing, their lazy attitude at having to actually do the work needed to ensure the NHS survives, would soon come to nought if we plebs were not handing over our taxes in order to fund their stupid grandoise scheme to be fairy godmother to the world and his family.

Perhaps these top Docs resent the fact that the extra paperwork they have been charged to do to deter overseas health visitors, interferes with their game of Golf!
The BMA look after the welfare of doctors. Just why should doctors be put into this position? The systems should be there to ensure that they get patients who are entitled to treatment or have paid.

The grey area is emergency treatment but again it's not for doctors or nurses to be put into a position where a patient has reached them and then they have to decide whether to treat. That's surely you agree - ludicrous!
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26-06-2019, 06:57 PM
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Re: Doctors say it is Racist to charge NHS Health Tourists!

Just to add that it does have implications for public health if you don't treat someone with a contagious disease e.g. ebola. It doesn't matter whether they can pay or not. That's a no brainer.
 
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