Pensioner & UK Health Care
May 30th 2011, 5:49 pm
#1
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Joined: Nov 2003
Location: Chiclana
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Pensioner & UK Health Care
I have my card to say that I am entitled to NHS care in the UK as a pensioner. Now the point I want to make is that if I go back to stay in the UK for a few weeks say and want to get advice on an existing condition perhaps with blood tests would this be a problem? I didn´t think it would but a friend has just said that I would need to have the six months residency for this.
May 30th 2011, 6:00 pm
#2
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Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Benalmadena Pueblo,Spain
Posts: 20,156
Re: Pensioner & UK Health Care
I have my card to say that I am entitled to NHS care in the UK as a pensioner. Now the point I want to make is that if I go back to stay in the UK for a few weeks say and want to get advice on an existing condition perhaps with blood tests would this be a problem? I didn´t think it would but a friend has just said that I would need to have the six months residency for this.
May 30th 2011, 6:34 pm
#3
Joined: Jun 2006
Location: Granada Costa
Posts: 10,902
Re: Pensioner & UK Health Care
I assume your card is the UK issued EHIC card.
This entitles you to any treatment that you need for any medical situation you encounter while visiting the UK. It also0 entitles you to any treatment needed for any ongoing medical condition.
So if you NEED blood tests for that existing condition you should be entitled to them.
If the tests are not absolutely necessary then it might be considered that you should have them when you return to Spain.
That's what the rules say but as always it is open to interpretation at the local level in the UK.
Judging by how lax the NHS is at checking out entitlement to treatments, I doubt that you would have any problems.
This entitles you to any treatment that you need for any medical situation you encounter while visiting the UK. It also0 entitles you to any treatment needed for any ongoing medical condition.
So if you NEED blood tests for that existing condition you should be entitled to them.
If the tests are not absolutely necessary then it might be considered that you should have them when you return to Spain.
That's what the rules say but as always it is open to interpretation at the local level in the UK.
Judging by how lax the NHS is at checking out entitlement to treatments, I doubt that you would have any problems.
May 30th 2011, 8:42 pm
#4
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Joined: May 2009
Location: Alicante province
Posts: 5,753
Re: Pensioner & UK Health Care
I know of a couple who ran a business in Spain for many years, totally legally, with total access to Spanish health care because of it. But the husband needed a complicated operation which would have meant quite a long wait under the state system, and paid a few thousand pounds to have it done privately, here in Spain.
The expensive, private operation failed and made his medical problems worse. The state system wasn't much help and they decided to return to the UK, mainly to correct the botched operation in Spain.
It has taken them two agonising years to sell both their business and home, but a tentative enquiry in the UK has indicated that they will be treated under their UK issued EHIC card, which will not cover the complicated operations that are necessary, not under the NHS which they left to live in Spain.
The couple are sticklers for doing things properly and have fully declared their situation to all the authorities concerned, both there and in the UK. The final advice is that they should sue the private Spanish hospital, and will have to pay for another operation to be performed in the UK, not under the NHS.
(The private hospital in Spain is quite prepared to try and correct the botched operation but want a ridiculous payment up front to go ahead with it).
The expensive, private operation failed and made his medical problems worse. The state system wasn't much help and they decided to return to the UK, mainly to correct the botched operation in Spain.
It has taken them two agonising years to sell both their business and home, but a tentative enquiry in the UK has indicated that they will be treated under their UK issued EHIC card, which will not cover the complicated operations that are necessary, not under the NHS which they left to live in Spain.
The couple are sticklers for doing things properly and have fully declared their situation to all the authorities concerned, both there and in the UK. The final advice is that they should sue the private Spanish hospital, and will have to pay for another operation to be performed in the UK, not under the NHS.
(The private hospital in Spain is quite prepared to try and correct the botched operation but want a ridiculous payment up front to go ahead with it).
