NHS for non UK residents
Feb 27th 2015, 2:11 pm
#16
I still dont believe it..
Joined: Oct 2013
Location: 12 degrees north
Posts: 2,777
Re: NHS for non UK residents
Somewhat closer to home for me, i used to work in a part of the nhs that pays for (commissions) services, ergo i know of what i speak, and i had the best advice on how to advise others to proceed within the system.
Feb 27th 2015, 2:13 pm
#17
I still dont believe it..
Joined: Oct 2013
Location: 12 degrees north
Posts: 2,777
Re: NHS for non UK residents
The rules effectively normally depend on your intentions, they will pay for anything if you return intending to stay but there are 3 and 6 month rules in places. However the nhs pastes itself into a corner if a patient has to be helped because not to do so puts them at immediate risk of harm.
Feb 27th 2015, 2:15 pm
#18
I still dont believe it..
Joined: Oct 2013
Location: 12 degrees north
Posts: 2,777
Re: NHS for non UK residents
Eg return after 30 years and convince a gp that you are here now for life and are seriously suicidal and the nhs is your oyster...
Feb 27th 2015, 7:51 pm
#19
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,865
Re: NHS for non UK residents
Absent minors, it's pretty hard to see what resident wouldn't be paying tax of one form or another, be it income tax, VAT, petrol tax etc.
Mar 2nd 2015, 9:37 am
#20
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 373
Re: NHS for non UK residents
Its also not that simple if you return. Depending on what you need, if it isnt emergency treatment, you may have to wait 3 or 6 months before you can get it free. Eg i understand a lady moved to the us, 30 years later well before retirement age, has early onset alzheimers, her us employer probably illegally bought her a 1 way ticket to london and disposed of the problem... So she arrives, and is passed to relatives, like a lost parcel, who have no space finances etc to look after her. Let alone any patience to deal with thT nightmare disease. The correct route after asking experts is to dump her in a&e. They have a duty to assess her which takes 2 months, she isnt safe to release, theres a financial fight between social services and the nhs, but she isnt impacted, and after a few more months she falls into the official system, and receives ongoing care costing us all, circa 200k a year for life? Theres nobody to extract finances from, apart from a theoretical us social services system, that maybe the uk social services can squeeze.
I returned to UK in October after 35 years away. No problem at all getting NHS number - in fact was much easier to get health care (non emergency) than it was to open a bank account.
