"Health Tourists take precedence over British Patients !

Would agree with you there GL, Consultants have been known to do private work in NHS operating theatres which is absolutely disgraceful. hey ho, par for the course.

Sorry must disagree this time Julie, On no account should a Consultant be using NHS operating theatres to operate on a patient who is paying privately. Private hospitals for private patients. NHS hospitals for NHS patients.
Every private patient in a NHS theatre is taking up the bed, the use of the theatre and staff, and the place of a NHS patient who cannot afford the luxury of being treated privately. No, definitely not right to be using taxpayer funded NHS facilities.

I can guarantee health tourist do not take priority over NHS patient's. They have private health insurance.

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/

How can you possibly guarantee this are you situated in every health authority. 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 .

Now I wouldn't have a problem with that providing they pay for the time.

Sorry must disagree this time Julie, On no account should a Consultant be using NHS operating theatres to operate on a patient who is paying privately. Private hospitals for private patients. NHS hospitals for NHS patients.
Every private patient in a NHS theatre is taking up the bed, the use of the theatre and staff, and the place of a NHS patient who cannot afford the luxury of being treated privately. No, definitely not right to be using taxpayer funded NHS facilities.

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. .

Which, I agree, is completely wrong. If they had to pay I'm sure they'd go elsewhere.

Once again, though, entirely our own fault.