Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

I doubt it.

Ed is maturing well unlike Cameron who is past his sell by date.

But you are dreaming.

If Lib/Dem formed an alliance with tories then it would be a minority of the Lib.dems and the rest of them would vote with SNP, Greens and Labour to bring the tories down!

What you are not recognising is that the majority of the voters of this country and Scotland and Wales are voting against another dose of tories ideology and corruption.

to be honest MrT, i have had no experience of hospitals and similar in EU
i know i have an EHIC card, which i think entitles me to be reimbursed when i get back to UK, but i really do not know the system

Beloved developed something in France which we thought might be quite dangerous and we went to a doctor
i don't recollect being charged, but i could be wrong ..... it turned out to be related to being dehydrated or somesuch

equally, i have no idea of the rules regarding benefits for foreigners coming to UK, EU citizens or otherwise
as i understand it, the hospitals quite often charge these people, but surprise surprise, many never pay up
under the hippocratic oath, doctors may have a moral, professional or even legal dilemma in refusing to treat a patient unless they have received pre-payment

Here's a story , a few years back an american friend of mine was staying with me and developed a breathing problem (they also forgot their spray for asthma )

We went to A&E and he was seen straight away and given a prescription for some tablets and an inhaler ,he thought the treatment was excellent and asked me how much it would cost at the chemist (it was about £7)

He told me that in his eyes while he was grateful for the attention it was wrong that he didn't pay to see the Doctor and a reasonable amount for the chemist ,he thought 2 or 3 hundred would have been fine.

I had had strep throat in Florida a couple of years before and it cost me $300 with the Doc and the antibiotics .

He thought it wrong that a foreigner could just turn up and get free health care..

to be honest MrT, i have had no experience of hospitals and similar in EU
i know i have an EHIC card, which i think entitles me to be reimbursed when i get back to UK, but i really do not know the system
cynic no you do not get reimbursed for USE OF EHIC THE COUNTRY YOU USE IT AS TO CLAIM IT BACK FROM THE UK GOV
that is why most of the doctors will not see you with the use of the card they want the cash or insurance cover hospitals will treat you under the card but only for minor things I am correct

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx
The EHIC card entitles you to free treatment at the time in the EU.

There is a link on the above to what is available in each county.

MrT - thanks for the clarification ..... for more serious things, i have medical cover when i travel anyway via the company

Hays - to what one might be entitled and what one receives in reality are often a long way apart

Yes Spain is notorious in refusing the card.

hay the only eu country that will take the card is malta france is w
orse than spain I go to Europe 10 to 12 times a year and have for years
france will tell you to get back to the uk they take you in to a room and say you would be better off back home have had it said twice to friends and I have been their when we say no we stopping here they say have cover or cash

my mp when iasked the question sent me this letter ever country as their own system
that's their decision from gov minister

Spanish hospitals have a problem getting paid under the EHIC scheme.

If they treat you under that scheme, they have to bill the UK via the Spanish gov.

The UK will pay up, but the Spanish gov quite often do not pass the money onto the hospitals, hence they are reluctant to treat people who cant pay and don't have insurance.

so then, under what agreement do we treat expat patients who just turn up on the hospital doorstep ... or even the doctor's surgery for that matter?

perhaps there is none, and hospitals and doctors have just got into the habit of so doing, with the reasonable professional justification that their job is to treat the ill and not to act as debt collectors

They'd change their minds if the pay packet depended on the hospital being paid.

They cant be bothered...that's the long and the short of it.

probably a bit harsh, but if there is no reciprocal treaty or similar, then it is the hospital or the surgery who should be doing the necessary at the door

certainly when i go privately for my PSA scan, i pay the clinic/laboratory for the blood test before it is even taken
the consultant bills me separately, but then we have a mutual friend

private clinics for other medical matters also charge up-front, and quite rightly so

Work out the cost of administrating collecting necessary information for charging and the hours of paper work involved against cost of treatment and frustration of staff involved.

Total it against total costs of NHS.

The medical staff in general would not be interested and would only raise the blockages in the system.

Have any of you watched the t v series Costa Del Casualty ?

TANKER , are all those trips abroad holidays

sorry fred but that has to be nonsense, and collecting at the door before treating is a damn sight cheaper than chasing for bad debt

if a shop or a clinic or a surgery or a laboratory can do it, there is absolutely no reason why a hospital cannot

What again

But medics as a whole, as yet, are not as mercenary as you!

If a patient turns up at the doors with a "stroke", a "coronary", (both of which you and Haze are in the right age group for, as well as JB, Max and Tinker), or acute asthma, or a fractured hip or pelvis, or "allergic reaction" or unconscious, are you going to riffle through their pockets for medical cards, wallet and bank cards.

Get real!

There is still such a thing as altruistic charity and what goes round comes round.

But check the costs.

There is a difference between "overseas" patients booking in for chronic conditions and cold surgery, against "disorders" occurring while the "patient" develops a condition while in a country.

The former is a small percentage of the problem and probably does need addressing.

But check who are the abusers first!

with some reluctance, i have to accept that the last part of your comment is fair, even if other countries may well just chuck you out the door regardless of the acuteness

however, non-emergencies as most doctor's or even A&E visits are can assuredly be charged at the door
it's not the doctors being mercenary (or not as the case may be), but as it's the taxpayer, which means even you, who has to pick up the tab, why should WE not collect on the spot

in this instance, the only thing that goes round and then comes round is death!