N.H.S.

Did any one watch the bbc last night called "Hospital" it dealt with foreigner's coming to Britain to have "free" medical care . One highlight was the Nigerian woman who had 4 kids ,it has been in national press also. I did not know that a guy was employed by the hospital to chase the money.
To cut short: the thing is she ran up a bill half a million pounds £500 thousands. This was fro her and the babies, Next was a young guy who when told he had to pay ( he had 2 stones in his kidney's)the guy asked how did he come to Britain? He smirked and said how do you think in the back of a lorry,i have no money,papers, p/port etc:: then laughed! Later he vanished i dont know if he had an operation(i dont think he did) Next up was a woman#s sister from the philippines she had a 4xbypass operation £60 thousand he asked her sister could she pay anything,reply :: I'm a poor o.a.p. im on my own and have just had to re-mortgage her house and she has no money coming from there. Finally a old bloke from turkey his daughter offered and signed but after the "OP" they vanished before anyone could try and collect money!

Now reading this i do not want any one to think i had an axe to grind i have not. But all those case's last night not a single one of them had an insurance policy. ( When we go away on our holidays they cram down on us to take insurance cover out) No not them they come here and they kinda expect to have treatment. The reason i brought this topic up is because they are costing the N.H.S. over £ 100 million a year up to date they have retrieved £4.1 million it helps but i feel sorry that our worker's/taxpayers are footing the bill, And all what is needed is for the government to introduce a bill to make it law that when these turn up at our hospitals they should have to submit a credit card ,if they don't them i'm afraid they should be turned away , to add if it were law then have a publicity campaign warning them before they set off for Britain . This is just one of many loopholes that could help our beloved N.H.S.

No axe to grind??

Could have fooled me, hardly a day goes by without you moaning about something in here, it must he laugh a minute in your house!

Anyway, tell us, how much do you think UK citizens run up in unpaid medical bills in other countries? .......or don't we Brits do things like that?

£30m against £114b is about 0.026%.

The NHS probably spend more than that on toilet paper every year.

I agree with golden bear . I have been saying it for years. our government has to pay or we have if we take ill or have a accident abroad. so should theirs.

So what do you suggest we a country should do if people not on the NI system cannot afford urgent medical treatment, leave them to suffer even die on the hospital carpark like wild animals? Would you really be comfortable with that situation. Sorry but as far as I am concerned this country and its people are way way above such things.

Have you not thought this through and actually considered the options or are you really as insular and inhumane as you are appearing to be?

If you want a percived injustice to moan about lets put it all into perspective and get a bit closer to home. Over £4.6bn a year is lost due to benefit fraud and tax evasion in this country.

How many doctors,nurses MRI scanners etc would that fund?

Strange thing is you very rarely hear the public complain about this little facet of everyday life here in the uk and I don't think I have ever seen the subject raised in here.....can't think why!

I shall be in Europe soon and have just taken out a years Insurance. What people are saying is that more of these people should get insurance but they don't because they know they will get treated and not pay. If they can afford an air fare to travel from Nigeria etc. they can afford Insurance. I wonder what happens in other countries.

What happens if a visitor needs emergency medical care? In many countries, a trip to the emergency room is free - not true in the U.S. Trips to the emergency room are just that - emergencies, so its not like you can put it off until you get home to your own regular doctor.

If you are in need of emergency medical care and have no insurance, you can expect to be transported to a welfare-based hospital pretty quickly but the quality of your care may be compromised. It might be the case that you may not be treated unless the hospital you are taken to has the extra cash in their budget for a charity patient. In most cases, the patient will be languish until they can be transferred to a welfare hospital where your medical treatment may not be top-notch and you'll still be required to pay for it eventually.
This is the current policy in the USA.

And if uk citizens can afford a week in Magaluf they can afford suitable insurance......but they don't always take it out do they, human nature.

Fact is no civilised country will refuse you urgent medical care. The quality may not be the best but no medical professional will stand in front of you and allow you to needlessly suffer or die. It goes against everything the Hippocratic oath stands for. I pay NI and understand it goes towards helping people with medical needs, exactly who and how doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Did the woman not come here to have her babies, knowing full well it would cost her nowt.....I'm off visiting my lad in New Zealand in a short while and have medical concerns, and the insurance is £192,but gladly pay it because I know I'm covered even though there is now a reciprocal agreement, but that doesn't cover repatriation if needed. With respect to the Hippocratic Oath, where was that when doctors went on strike......if folk go on holiday to Magaluf with no insurance they deserve everything they get.

Are UK citizens in Magaluf not entitled to the same treatment they would receive at home under the EU reciprocal arrangement? It used to be some E?? or other.

Foreigners at it again, GB.

What do they not do?

I was speechless watching the programme but they do it because they get away with it and we are far too soft in this country.

I am speechless too.....at the sheer inhumanity and lack of compassion that is being displayed.

OK I will put the question out again, specifically to GB... and ask What do you suggest we do about it?

Had that woman stayed where she was she and all her babies would have died, is that acceptable to you GB? The really sad thing is that there are hundreds like her who don't get help and will loose their children and die. If the situation was different and it was you or your family involved would you do something similar or just sit there and await the inevitable.

We are fortunate in that we have built and live in a society that does not allow such things to happen, its easy to overlook this fact and its often taken for granted. However its our outlook and approach to issues like this and our willingless to help people in need that make us one of the most respected nations on the world stage If you object to this country helping people in ways like this quite frankly you don't deserve to call yourself a Briton and you can drag me outside and shoot me for being a traitor!

You stick to being insular and moaning, whinghing and looking after number one GB, its what you are best at

And remind me which Country Colonised these people, made them citizens of the Empire?

Could it have been the country of your birth by any chance??

We may have colonised, murdered, taken their resources and confiscated all their land, but we made them more civilised in return.

Ho-hum!

If we are going to go off on a tangent and start introducing inconsequential matters to the debate can I point out that the NHS didn't assist when the British Empire was being formed.

wether anything would have happened to her kids is not the point,if she had landed in the usa would she have left without charge.
the uk has been the paymaster in Europe for forty years and its foreign aid has been more than bountiful,why should we become thefree medical centre of the world.
enough is enough.
we can stop most foreign aid give the eu the cold shoulder over its demand for 60 billion euros has compensation for ourselves leaving the job of the bank of the European "union".
finally if you can afford to fly here from any nation on earth get your credit card out for your british national health service costs.

So in effect you would have been quite happy to ignore her plight and let her and the four babies suffer and die right front of you?

A simple yes or no will suffice.

How about a bit of contraception? Cheaper all round for all concerned.

For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?

I've not watched the programme, but am told the lady was on a flight to the USA which was diverted to UK as she had gone into labour. She did not come here to have her babies on purpose.

The costs are so high because herself and 4 babies(Yes 4) needed to be put onto intensive care. 2 of her babies died and no doubt herself and the other two would have died if she had been refused immediate treatment.

I know some wouldn't but I'd rather have the mother and two children alive than dead. And we should continue to treat tourists when and were treatment is needed and worry about recouping the payment later. Otherwise it will just result in a loss of life. Maybe some of you are ok with this.

I'm often bemused when people say we should adopt certain rules of another country. "They don't tolerate it over there, so why should we".

It is things like this, which makes our country better than there country. We have built our own standards, laws and ideals learned from centuries of debate, disagreements, disputes, colonisation and wars.

There is no point making our countries moral standards worse, just to spite the foreigners.

This can be notched on the long xenophobic list of what foreigners do to us. Coming over here......etc...etc.

Not quite the story I read. The woman had travelled to the USA to have the children but was refused entry because she couldn't prove she had sufficient funds for medical treatment. The woman then got a flight to Heathrow where she intended to catch a flight back to Nigeria. However on the flight to Heathrow she started to have contractions and you know the rest.

so the plot thickens,she was going to the usa from Nigeria ,not cheap but was turned away from them because of no proof of funds.very interestingly she boarded the flight back from the usa to Nigeria,did she not realise the yanks health care isn't free,that story is frankly hard to swallow.
on the way back she goes into labour and we quite rightly provide her with care,she still as to pay for her services from the NHS.
her story is only for the gullible managers within the nhs.
my comments may seem harsh,but its my bet many others have preceded her and many others will come after her, meanwhile we pick up the tab.

Was that a yes or a no?

IN response to something on here ,I am deciding whether or not he/she/it is worthy of a reply mainly because i do not go in for attacking fellow members on our site.

The woman in question obviously intended having some country pick up the tab for the birth of the children as she initially travelled to the US with no monies. The fact that she landed in the U.K. Was an inconvenience but she still achieved her original aim. The woman had IVF treatment in the first place which means there is a higher chance of multiple births.

GB,
Save your breath.

But no one has quite got the courage to back up their convictions and actually say it have they?

"The money should be spent on UK citizens and if she and her babies die...tough"

Take a step back and look at yourselves, civilised people in a civilised country?

Pathetic is not the word.

We can only speculate but her intentions may have been to give birth in another country. It's nothing to do with picking up the tab though.

I'm no expert but I'm sure delivering quadruplets is not your run of the mill birth. I can't imagine Nigerian health facilities being at the same level as the US or UK.

By getting on that plane, she has probably saved her own and two of her childrens lives.

Desperate people, do desperate things. Nothing we can really do to stop that. Other than refuse treatment and watch them die.

It horrifies me that people all travelled such distances without insurance. I wouldn't dream of doing so. Also to fly such a long distance with a multiple pregnancy especially four babies was risky in the extreme.
I think it should be a condition of travel that insurance his held, simple as, especially where there is not a reciprical agreement with the country of origin.
Wasn't there a story a couple of years ago where a British couple were on holiday in Spain when she delivered a premature baby? as she didn't have any insurance for the possibility of her baby being born there and requiring medical care she ran up a huge hospital bill and had to come home specifically to raise the money for her child's treatment before she could bring it home.

If the lady in questions real aim was to find superior medical care she could have flown to the Middle East, which would have halved her journey, and I am sure Saudi etc. have terrific facilities on a par with the US. Just a thought.

Not very long ago a lady was on holiday in the States,she had some sort of a fall which required going into hospital,she was insured,but the insurance company refused to pay the very large bill because of her having drunk alcohol,the lady was from Wigan,and she was hounded for the money,which she did not have,I believe she is now dead,but I think she was quite old,I think she was from the Whelley area.

The United Nations says there are 1.4 billion
displaced people around the world. We
are all sympathetic to their plight.

Stardelta , how will the taxpayer of the
western world pay for their medical care do
you suppose?

I'm only going to Tenby for 5 days and I have taken insurance out and I an in the NHS.

Are you having a baby?

lol If I am, change my name to Mary.

sectioned
I will tell you what will make me happy ,if you pick up the tab for this blatant health tourist.flying across the world in search of free treatment,affording ivf and air fares,but wanting to avoid any costs afterwards.
you remind me of geldorf ,bono and co extolling the common people too make generous donations ,yet keeping their hands far from their wallets.
you treat this woman like she's an innocent traveller,who unfortunately went into labour high above the clouds,usually where your head is located.

I didn't know she had had IVF but in any case don't most airline refuse to fly pregnant women after a certain number of weeks into pregnancy. Of course she could have lied about how far on she was.

Blatent health tourist?
Have you actually seen the programme and attempted to understand the circumstances and how she ended up in the UK?

You know what, every so often Tonker comes out of the wordwork and says some Wiganers are daft and will believe anything.

I am starting to agree with him

Some certainly take the Mick. I was in my dentist about four months ago and a family of asylum seekers were in and the man was trying to claim travel expenses. The receptionist had to go and disturb a dentist to explain to him what she had been explaining, as he was insistent that he could claim travel expenses.

I think that the point being raised is that people are getting fed up with the abuse of the NHS by outsiders. We pay a great deal of money in aid to the world and in charities that are on the TV numerous times. If I asked a friend to give me some money, never paid it back and kept asking, until that friends money that he kept giving to me,meant his own family went short would he keep on giving....how much are we expected to look after the world and his dog. Having said that, the British people seem to have an ingrained attitude to help folk, that's why she was treated.

Don't forget there's only one person protecting this particular person.

To not treat her on arrival was not an option - not even a heartless person would turn away a woman in labour with very premmie babies on board. We need to make it known abroad that no insurance means no travel to this country and that treatment in this country is not free. We have to treat people who present as an emergency, it would be immoral not to, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't chase up payment.

Baker "I will tell you what will make me happy".

Letting her and all her babies die would have made you happy. Would teach her a lesson and she wouldn't do it again. Her treatment isn't free. She has been slapped with a huge bill.

Bass "British people seem to have an ingrained attitude to help folk, that's why she was treated."

Clearly not all British people, Bassman.

Long may this attitude last. It is what makes our country and people better than other countries.