Editha

When I first came to Canada I was on a tourist visa. It was more than a year before I got 'landed immigrant' stamped in my passport, and another six months before I had PR status. I had to leave the country twice in that time and returned to the UK to renew my tourist visa.

Legally during that time I was only entitled to NHS care. Since I was on a tourist visa I was not resident legally in Canada. I asked my GP for six months supply of my medications before I left, which seemed reasonable to me. In fact, Alberta Health Care and Blue Cross exercised their discretion to give me health care until my PR status came through, so the problem was solved.

Editha

Speaking as a patient, my experience of the NHS, in the decade or so before I left the UK in '06, was dire, but in Canada we have had an excellent GP and a first class service.

I accept that this has been partly down to chance and the fact that as a uni lecturer my husband's health insurance is very comprehensive. But, there are ways in which Alberta seems to do things better, in particular GPs are prompter to order tests and screens. Both my husband and I have benefited from this, with a tangible improvement in our health.

JonboyE

Everybody gets free emergency treatment on the NHS. The only requirement is medical need. It has always been that way AFAIK.

Jerseygirl

Good grief...what on earth is wrong with someone who has paid UK income tax for years/decades wishing to get several months of meds?

Tirytory

I'm fairly sure that there are plans afoot to change this....

Tirytory

Well my argument is the sense of entitlement..... And Snoopdawg if you read that post pointed out the medical implications of treatment, and of course the small point that the GP would be breaking the legal rules of that country.

Siouxie

If you are given medication whilst at a hospital in Canada, you do not pay for it - so would you refuse to be prescribed drugs or treatment on the basis that you have no entitlement as you haven't paid into the system long enough?

Tirytory

I see I think that comes down to intention, the op even if half jokingly suggested medication of a year.... Initial medication to tide you over is clearly important, disruption of medication can have huge implications but how long does anybody need really between landing and finding their way to a doctor, handing their notes in and getting the appropriate prescription?

I would never intentionally seek to defraud anybody. Both my husband and I pay taxes and we covered our family with the necessary protection we needed and we've paid recently for medications we needed.

As a side note it's amusing the way everyone side steps the issue that bulk medicating for a lot of drugs is not actually all that good for you and puts your doctor in a ethically awkward decision.

Tirytory

Anyhow it's clear I'm on my own with my obsessively black and white approach to this thread so I shall bow out now.

Stinkypup

Just because access to emergency care in the Uk via A&E has been free to all up until now doesn't make it right. That is part of the reason that the NHS is in the state that it is in now. As others have pointed out, in the US you stump up the cash up front. Indeed when one of our sons fell snowboarding locally, we were presumed to be tourists- they didn't actually ask for his care card and we were billed for the ambulance and ER treatment which is fair enough. We explained that we were covered by MSP and just paid the ambulance fee as per usual. This should also apply in the UK. Unfortunately I don't think people are looking at the bigger picture- where health is concerned dare I say it people can be quite selfish- you chose to leave the UK and become non resident, medications are just one of the downsides that you have to swallow (no pun intended!) The two health systems are different in subtle ways but the issue of medications is one huge difference. That is how it is- we have to treat our patients with costs in mind every day, we do the best that we can. I am with Tirytory on this and feel that grabbing as many sweets from the bowl before legging it is a touch selfish.

Editha

I don't think it is a question of right and wrong, from a moral point of view anyway. I've received free emergency treatment as a visitor in Italy, and Kenya. I don't think I was committing a sin. It was just the way their systems worked.

The government reckons it can claw back £500 million from charging overseas visitors and migrants. Obviously, that is worth doing, but until the law is changed it doesn't make visitors who use the service morally to blame.

The US and UK health systems are not different in 'subtle ways'. That is a bizarre thing to state. They are massively different systems, one is a socialized health care system, the other based on private schemes and insurance.

If you want to privatize the NHS, and your post implies that you do, then you will have an uphill struggle to convince the British public, who rather enjoy having longer healthier lives than their counterparts in the USA.

Stinkypup

I wasn't comparing in that statement the Uk and US systems at all, maybe I should have clarified that for you. I have both worked in both Uk and the Canadian systems, both state funded. My post certainly did not imply that I wanted a private system, just that I can't see why travellers can claim free emergency treatment or indeed any treatment if they are non resident and have paid no money into the system. They don't here in Canada if visiting and they certainly don't in the US. Maybe you are too remote from what is actually happening with regards to the NHS in the Uk. I am acutely aware having kept abreast especially of general practice which provides about 90% of care in the UK that things are heading for meltdown which is an incredibly sad state of affairs. There is not infinite funding for the residents let alone visitors who might like yourself feel that they have a right to use the system at no cost to themselves but provided by the UK tax payer. Morally right?... That's for you to decide. If I was seeking a privatised health system both to work in and to use then clearly I would have moved to the US...I chose not to.

Tirytory

We've only just left, and my husband has kept his partnership and taken a sabbatical... So regular updates on practice changes/decreases in his income/national changes etc etc. He reports back to me with the same expression of despair (prob not an exaggeration) that he used to come home every night from work with. The NHS or GP service can't carry on as it is and is going to crash and burn soon. Certainly my husband left because he felt he couldn't carry on much longer.

I think perhaps some could think about the bigger picture..

Editha

Of course one of the drains on the British taxpayer is the cost of underwriting the training of doctors who then leave and go and work abroad. Some people might think they are rather selfish.

Stinkypup

Actually financed the course myself as a mature student so no drain on the tax payer so I feel I can salve my conscience in that respect. I then worked damn hard in the NHS for about 25 years- I feel I "did my duty".
You seem a little argumentative- I don't feel that it isn't unreasonable for a number of posters who have worked in the NHS for a considerable of years to put forward their thoughts, we remain acutely aware of what is going on in the NHS- If you were perhaps dare I say it, a little more aware, the cause of the crisis isn't doctors leaving the UK, they are leaving the UK or retiring early in literally their thousands due to over demand and underfunding and the queue to leave is getting longer and longer. I now hopefully provide hopefully equally good care for my patients that I am glad to say that you seem to be getting from your own GP