Giantaxe

Yeh, but your wife's health is more important than your pride. The reality is that the US has a truly *ked up system of access to healthcare. You have an "out" and in your circumstances I would use it.

The question I would ask is whether your wife is willing to live permanently in the UK if that's the way things go... if not, I think the problems with your family (and perhaps wife) will only multiply down the road.

cindyabs

People who say I told you so are not the ones paying your bills............. REMEMBER THAT and either tell them to get bent or smile and say indeed, in that infinitely superior British way,

Sp prioritize your needs and the means-legal, monetary etc you need and have already in order to achieve what you want.

meauxna

She proves it with her appropriate immigration entry stamp, which she gets after getting the correct visa to immigrate to the UK. Which she does based on her marriage to a UKC.

Mummy in the foothills

Jerseygirl

This is a copy of an email I received from the NHS in May 2010. I wrote asking if they could clarify what the position of a UK citizen who is resident overseas would be when visiting the UK and in need of medical treatment.


' Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email of 13 May to the Department of Health about the eligibility of non-resident children with British citizenship for NHS treatment.

It may be helpful if I explain that the NHS is regarded as first and foremost for the benefit of people living in this country. Entitlement to free GP treatment, NHS hospital treatment and subsidised dental treatment is based on residence in the UK, not on nationality, citizenship status, the payment of taxes or National Insurance contributions.

Overseas residents visiting the UK who require treatment that a GP or healthcare professional regards as emergency or immediately necessary treatment will receive that treatment free of charge. However, for other primary medical services, GP practices may accept (or decline) such people as registered patients in the same way as they make decisions about people who are permanently resident. If the practice does use its discretion to accept such an overseas visitor on to its list, the GP practice is required, under its contractual arrangements, to provide that treatment free of charge to the patient. If the GP practice does not wish to accept the overseas visitor on to its list, it can offer to treat them as a patient on a private, paying basis. General practice is expected to exercise this discretion with sensitivity and with due regard to the circumstances of each case.

I hope this reply is helpful.

Yours sincerely, '

Bluegrass Lass

Exactly what I was going to say!

GeoffM

Which proves she has a legal right to remain in the UK but does not prove that she is resident in the UK, the latter being the key guidance that the NHS supposedly works against, albeit with some latitude. Jerseygirl's email backs up the evidence I have already provided.

One more thing the OP might need to consider is whether treatment will be available when she needs it. If she takes medication, can she get enough to tide her over until she arrives, gets seen by a GP, referred to a consultant, sits on a waiting list? Even in high priority cases (ie non-emergency) the wheels can take several days to turn. A referral from a foreign (ie US) doctor will not necessarily help speed things up as you still have to jump through the same hoops to see consultants.

Lothianlad

A term often used here in the UK in reference to people seeking NHS treatment who are officially resident outside of the UK but temporarily accommodated here, often in a somewhat pejorative way, is Health Tourism.

Like so many other organisations in the UK at the present time the NHS is pretty much strapped for cash, and it has to be said that it is being abused in a variety of ways by UK residents as well as by people from abroad. A recent report stated that far too many people visit their local GP surgeries when there is absolutely no need for them to do so, and only a couple of weeks or so the possibility of actually charging patients for a GP consulation was being discussed on a BBC radio 4 program. Many doctors say that every NHS practice surgery or medical centre has a hard core number of patients who almost regard a GP consulation as some kind of social event, something to do to pass the time of day it would seem.

Recently my mother told me that when she visited her local GP surgery the waiting room was filled with "foreigners" (her word) - probably Eastern Europeans as we have large numbers of them in this area, many of them now living here permanently as EU nationals, and many of them mothers accompanied by their kids, later to be seen in the local pharmacies handing over their free medical prescriptions in exchange for medications.

http://www.hospitaldr.co.uk/blogs/ou...-tourism-in-uk

robin1234

What's the problem here.. by your description, these people in the waiting room are resident in the UK therefore entitled to NHS treatment. Presumably if I went to Poland, and I established myself as a resident, I would be fully entitled to treatment there.

These Eastern Europeans in the waiting room, I assume they pay their taxes, or are the dependents of a worker or self-employed person who pays taxes?

From what I've read of British history, the country is made up of migrants from the anglo-saxons on down to the present day.

paul_79

If I remember correctly when I changed doc's a couple of times they asked for a bank statement or council tax bill to prove I lived in the area. So simply add her to that when he's back.

BTW - when we lived in the UK my US wife went to the doctors plenty and had wisdom teeth out on the NHS. She was never once asked to prove residency. Even though I'm clearly a Brit I did have to prove I lived in the area!

Jerseygirl

It's all down to the discretion of the doctor as stated in the email I posted.

paul_79

Exactly. I was backing that up with my experience.