I have to go to the hospital for appointments (for my Dad) on a Monthly basis and I am surprised to find just how many expats (from Aus,NZ etc) are coming over here to use the NHS and then fly back to "Utopia" as one called their adopted country....unless there is no other means of Health Care in the countries they now live in, I think this (along with Non English residents)should be band. I had worked in the NHS for quite a few years before we migrated to Aus and I had personally did not treat anyone who used the system like this but its happening more and more. The NHS is being abused way to much as it is and I know sometimes there are just causes which is only right and fair but the rest for me is a big No No...okay just letting off steam as I am there this morning with my Dad.

I agree with you! It must be that the foreign patients are lying and/or giving false addresses as, from the experience my husband had some years ago at a public hospital, it is made very clear that if you are not resident in the UK, you will be billed. We knew that in advance and he received treatments as a private patient.

Hi brits, I'm sorry to hear that your Dad's not well and I know from personal experience that waiting around with someone for an outpatient appointment is the pits. I hope your Dad is better soon.

I'm interested in the point you raised about expats coming back to the UK just to receive health care. If they're permanent residents or citizens of Australia, I'm surprised they can get anything in the UK except emergency treatment under the reciprocal health agreement. I know that's how it is the other way around - ie when my husband and I move to the UK to retire, we won't be permitted to access any health care on trips back to Oz except the emergency treatment under the reciprocal agreement.

I must confess to using the NHS walk in system once, at Ormskirk hospital last year. I'd lost my handbag with a prescription drug in it and didn't have a replacement. If I'd stopped taking the drug suddenly I'd have got really sick. I offered to pay to see the doctor but they wouldn't hear of it, said it was covered under the agreement. I did pay for my prescription though!

The NHS tourism issue has been done to death on here before - lots of disagreement on whether it is morally wrong, and whether it really "matters" (economically, apparently it is a drop in the ocean).

A friend of mine in the US comes back for surgeries and other health care regularly (since 2001), and his GP knows he doesn't live here ...

They Scortish ul be nae tae pleased with thart consait lassie.
Ni fydd pobl Cymru yn falch chwaith.

Scots banned like this? http://youtu.be/Ib_a5tALfog

Having paid in over 30 years of NI contributions, I'm furious that I'm no longer entitled to receive NHS treatment as a UK citizen. The powers that be should really distinguish between those who have not contributed anything and those that have. To have to pay privately when plenty of people who haven't contributed a penny get treatment, is just morally wrong in my book.

Hey ho, as you've said it's been discussed before

FYI, it's primarily income tax that funds the NHS, not NI, but your logic remains the same.

I'm sure this thread will run and run, just like the others on this topic.

I paid income tax faithfully for 30 years too

Babies need treatment, and their mothers too. Babies certainly have not had an opportunity to contribute and quite possibly young mothers had very little opportunity too.

I'm sorry to say you have a very male outlook on this. Especially with Europe's youth unemployment rate above 23% - at that's not counting youth on dead-end government "schemes". Most (not all) would love to be able to contribute.

Your NI contributions will get you a state pension. At current Class 2 rates (if eligible), one need only have paid in about 4,000 pounds total* to get approx 5,400 per annum (present pounds) for life at age 65, so which expat would complain about that?

As general comments on this:

I think that the powers that be are now saying (or starting to say) that basically the NHS is there for all-comers for the very reason that there are many within the resident population who actually contribute nothing, particularly in terms of income tax, so that denying any all-comer from receiving treatment is an infringement of their human rights because paying income tax per se is clearly not the prerequisite in spite of the fact that income tax pays for the NHS. Whether this open door policy will be put into practice sometime soon is not clear.

Being resident is only the normal prerequisite for certain "entitlements" because this implies that one is resident for (income) tax purposes - no ticky no washy. Being British doesn't really guarantee much, apart from a right of abode.

Ironically, tourists/visitors are likely far more net contributors to the overall tax kitty per diem than the average resident what with VAT on just about everything they purchase (assuming they don't then claim it back) and heavy departure tax. Remember also that at the margin, the costs associated with a medical procedure are normally nowhere near what would be billable, waiting list issues accepted. It's not an excuse but it does soften the blow, a bit.

*At present, HMRC are giving contributors until April 5, 2019 to pay contributions for tax year 2011-2012, so it's not like the money is all being tied up for years to pay for this either

Male outlook? That's interesting .

Sorry I did mean British Citizens and not just the English

Hi I attend a Clinic with my Dad every month and he's not great but coping better than I think I would be in his situation. I really do think if you live in the UK then your entitled to use of the NHS and emergency treatment only if a non resident. I knew a person in Aus who knew they had to have a back operation and a long time with medical supervision afterwards so they went back to the UK to the area where the best hospital for this op would was lived there for a while, was then referred by his GP to this hospital, had the op then after all was completed went back to Aus.

I have paid into the NI contributions system since I left school and with good fortune never had to use the system (except to have two babies) when we went overseas to live it never crossed my mind that I would use the system once I lived in another country just because I had paid my NI in the past....saying that if my life depended on the best medical treatment and it was in the UK etc then obviously my thoughts might be different.

It's amazing how well some older people cope with illness. I go with my stepdad once a week while he gets radiotherapy, he chats away like we're on an outing to the beach!

The UK really is different to Australia then, there's no way an Aussie expat who'd settled in another country could come back for surgery etc. I've looked into it fairly extensively prior to my UK cit husband's and my move back to the UK. Fortunately we've had private health cover here for a long time, so we're able to suspend it and take it up again if need be, but only if we came back to Australia permanently (ie no quick trips back for stuff).