UK NHS; residents in Thailand now excluded

[flossie35]

As from May this year, UK residents in Thailand are no longer eligible for free NHS hospital treatment when visiting UK. On a recent visit I was hospitalised for emergency treatment for a bleeding gastric ulcer, and on leaving was presented with a bill for 4000+ GBP. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations. The fact that one is a UK taxpayer and therefore already paying for the NHS is apparently regarded as "irrelevant" by the government, who claim that this measure will greatly improve NHS finances, which seems a bit unlikely. Not for nothing are they known as "the nasty party". The answer seems to be to take out travel insurance when returning to the UK./

[emilymat]

I've just been in the UK for 3 weeks and caught a chest infection. Went to the doctors twice and free prescriptions.

I am not sure of your circumstances but I've always understood 'emergency' treatment is free to all travellers. Certainly, when I took my Thai wife to the UK for a break this was understood.

It's elective surgery that has proven the bugbear for health tourism.

[theoldgit]

This issue is being discussed here Camerons-message-to-all-british-ex-pats for some time.

I'll close this one as we don't really need two discussions on the same issue.

Sorry to hear about your problem.