OTA63

Hi Shorebird
Thank you for your post. As yet I do not have any definitive answers as to treatment for my wife's Crohns in Spain. We are going to Torrevieja in September next year when we hope to visit a local doctor and get some more concrete answers. Other's on the forum have recommended bringing 3 months medication with us but this is not possible with Infliximab or Remesam (I think it's called in Spain) as this is given in an out patients clinic in hospital.
I know it is in Spain, but would my wife get it, and how do we get over the gap between her last treatment in Scotland and her first in Spain?
The problem with Health insurance is that they rarely cover (if ever) pre existing medical conditions.
All that apart, there are the possible outcomes of Brexit to consider. That said we are determined to move to Spain as early as November next year if we can find suitable long term rented accommodation and find some way round the Crohn's medication problem.

FranE

IF the treatment is available in Spain, then your wife's EHIC should cover her for any treatment she needs in the short term. I was recently checking exactly what it does cover, and the NHS site confirms it covers treatment of pre-existing conditions. It also confirmed that it is not (as I had thought) limited to a max 3 month stay, but covers longer term stays provided they are still a temporary absence from the UK. So that should cover you until you get your permanent arrangements (whatever they may be) sorted out? As ever, this is all subject to Brexit. But if you go in November you should have at least 3 months before B-Day.

bobd22

The alleged 3 month per stay for using the Ehic is a fallacy. I recently attended a government ran workshop re the Ehic (to try and simplify it). At the workshop were officials from both department of health and Ehic workers . They were not aware of any time limit whatsoever only that it must be a temporary trip and that you retain uk residency. In fact two of those that worked within the ehicc department, one the helpline the other administrating issue of ethics mentioned that people can and do use it for living half and half between uk and other countries. The 3 month thing seems to come from the 90 day foreign residency rule. That is a seperate Spanish legal issue that does not concern the Ehic.

OTA63

Thanks FranE and Bobd22. That info is very handy as I though the EHIC only covered emergency treatment. If my wife can get her treatment at the hospital when it would normally have been due in the UK, that will take quite a weight off our minds. Apart from deciding , well my wife anyway, as to whether she likes it there, her treatment was THE sticking point.