14 Oct 2012 12:45 PM:
Just a reply by contrast:
Subject: From The Daily Mail Newspaper iPad App:
We are a fekin joke!! Foreigners must laugh at us.
Why are we such a soft touch all the time. It makes me mad!!!!!
Open door for health tourists - and it’s down to human rights!
HEALTH tourists must be given free treatment by GPs because it is their
human right, say NHS bosses.
New guidelines tell doctors across England they must register any foreign
patient who asks for care otherwise it would be ‘discriminatory’ .
These include asylum seekers, overseas students or tourists coming for a
short holiday. Once registered, they will be entitled to the same NHS care
as all other patients and can receive free blood tests, jabs and – in some
cases – free prescription drugs.
In fact, the new rules will give overseas patients more rights than those
living in the UK who can be turned away from surgeries if they live a few
yards outside its catchment area. There are also fears the ruling will make
it even harder for local patients to get an appointment.
Already half of patients cannot get an appointment with their doctor within
48 hours, according to the Government’s own figures. Some family doctors
are furious at the guidelines and describe them as a ‘charter for health
tourism’ .
They say that such patients, once registered at a surgery, will also find it
far easier to be referred to hospital for thousands of pounds of free
treatment.
By law, overseas patients are not entitled to be treated at hospital –
unless it is urgent – but staff rarely check on their backgrounds.
Until now, GP practices were not legally obliged to register foreigners and
many turn away patients if they do not have passports or ‘proof of address’
documents.
But the new guidelines issued to all doctors in England will change this.
One GP, who wished to remain anonymous , said: ‘I am not sure the British
taxpayer should be paying for the world’s health treatment for free.’
And Tory MP Chris Skidmore, who is campaigning for tougher regulation on
health tourism, said: ‘It is alarming that managers are passing these kind
of diktats to doctors, many of whom are rightly worried that GP registration
is effectively buying free treatment on the NHS.
‘This is not just about the money, vital though that is – we cannot have the
NHS, paid for by taxpayers, being abused by people who pay nothing into the
system and who are not eligible for free care.’
Mr Skidmore has obtained figures showing that health tourists currently owe
the NHS £40million in unpaid medical bills.
In the last year nearly 3,600 ‘overseas visitors’ have had hospital
treatment worth at least £1,000 a time.
National guidelines say it would be discriminatory for GPs not to treat
health tourists.
NHS London, one of four strategic health authorities in England, has backed
up this advice with further guidelines explaining they will ‘promote human
rights and public health’ .
Dr Vijayakar Abrol, a GP who practises in Edgbaston, Birmingham, said: ‘The
guidance is not worth the paper it is written on. We do not have endless
resources. Why should we give these patients – be they from India, Canada,
the US or Eastern Europe – free treatment?
‘We cannot go to those countries and get free treatment ourselves.’
Last week an investigation by BBC’s Panorama found that staff working at GP
surgeries were taking bribes of £800 to register health tourists on surgery
lists.
One manager, Asif Butt, who worked at a practice in Sparkhill, Birmingham,
has since been suspended.
Some doctors say it is cost-effective – not to mention humane – to register
overseas patients.
Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical
Association , said it would be far cheaper to give patients insulin for
diabetes, for example, rather than later treating them in A&E after they had
fallen into a coma.
They also believe it could help prevent the spread of certain diseases such
as tuberculosis which is commonly brought in by overseas patients.
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Social Security in Spain. Do they leave you to die the road side?
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