steviedeluxe

Very sad story this. I hope the family gets the money together to take their daughter back home (in this case Granada)

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/l...n_haemorrhage/

http://www.abc.es/20120516/espana/ab...205160920.html

We never know what is around the corner...

missile

A very sad case.

Obviously EHIC would not cover repatriation or relatives expenses, but I was not aware that there was a limit to emergency hospital care provided by the card?

billgates

A very sad story, but the EHIC ought to be sufficient for 99.9% of claims whilst abroad.
Hindsight, ESP, whatever, you just can't take out insurance to cover all eventualities.
And if you are working in a foreign country then why aren't you paying into the foreign country's NHS system?

May as well insure yourself against a lightning strike.

lynnxa

hang on a min...........


the EHIC is for holidays, right??

& this poor girl was legally living & working in the UK, right?

since the UK NHS is resident based , as a legal resident, shouldn't she simply be entitled to all healthcare on the same basis as any other legal resident

missile

As I read the story she is a 25 year old student.

steviedeluxe

Ah, well spotted. It was the "she helps teach Spanish" at the local college that made me think she was working (full-time)

lynnxa

either way - still legally resident in the UK.................. not on holiday

edit - this was bugging me, so I looked it up

from here so if the course is either part time or for less than 6 months, then the EHIC is what she needs - but it does say she's covered for medically necessary treatment during their stay free of charge. even if that is the case


although that wouldn't get her home

steviedeluxe

Well according to the story she's not covered

Whether this has always been the case, or it's part of the general cutting-back, I don't know.

lynnxa

I was editing as you posted - look at my amended post


even that though indicates she should be covered - unless looking after someone in a coma isn't considered medically necessary!

steviedeluxe

From your link it seems that she would have been covered had the course been less than 6 months. From the abc article I'm guessing the course was for longer, and she'd just got to the 6 month stage, so was no longer covered.

lynnxa

but surely if it's a longer course she'd be resident???


I'm going to do some digging




(anything is better than tidying up/editing my course book for proper publication)

Domino

recently my UK local paper printed the "sad" story of a Pakistani child that came over to the UK with his mother in Sept on a 6 months visit.
In January child was rushed to hospital with serious illness, uncle took responsibility for putting child into hospital.
He contacted the newspaper to complain because the hospital had told him he would be liable for £1500 plus any ongoing costs for the treatment.
He had assumed that as he was paying in to the system that any/all his family from whatever country would be able to access the NHS for free.

I know nothing about insurance costs other than those policies we have, but they don't appear to be too onerous when visiting another country.

Better to have too much or duplicated cover than nothing at all.

Understand the Granada local government are considering providing financial support to the family who are also receiving donations from many kindly locals.

mikelincs

I suspect the real problem is the cost of repatriation, which could well be over £10000, this is what she is NOT covered for, but a specific insurance policy would cover it. Sh obviously hasn't registered as living in the UK, if she had, and been on the electoral roll, then she would have her medical expenses fully covered, but NOT the repatriation, nor any expenses incurred by her mother who is over here.

JLFS

Why would anyone assume that the NHS would be free for their relatives are not British citizens,who come to the UK to visit for a holiday?

The family should have had holiday health insurance, because a lot can happen in a 6month visit.

Im_and_Er

NHS for students:

http://www.studystay.com/htm/essenti...nt_health2.htm

Essentially if a course is over 6 months duration then you are entitled to the same free NHS treatment as any other UK citizen for the entire period.

EHIC's should not come into it so something is wrong with the reporting of this story.