Actually,"deliberate health tourism" is thought be be around 120m to 280m. This includes British expats who return to the UK to see doctors. Even so, it is tiny in the big scheme of things.

But as we all know its just another exaggeration used to rile up the base.

You're correct it is a tiny percentage. However to me it's more the principle of it. I don't go to work and pay my taxes and NI for any Tom dick and Harry to use it. Emergencies aside of course. If I have to use a doctor on holiday in Greece I have to pay the guy before he'll even see me . I then have to claim it back on my insurance, why don't we adopt the same policy

You don’t, unless you are going to a private healthcare facility, which you would also have to pay for in the UK.
As an EU citizen you can get free medical treatment in Greece with a free EHIC card.

Your EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) gets you free treatment with any healthcare provider with a contract with the Greek National Organisation for Healthcare Services Provision (EOPYY).

You are talking paranoid rubbish. I have been on holiday in Greece when a friend who became ill. We took him to the local hospital; the treatment was excellent & free. I don't think they even asked to see his card.

It's misdirection. The reason the NHS is struggling is because of under-funding not because of hordes of foreign health tourists. Blaming foreigners plays to some people's innate prejudice and allows those really responsible to get off the hook.

You're being had.

And this is why we are where we are - when people base their opinions not on fact or reality or their own experience, but on what a Daily Mail columnist wrote, or what Nigel Farage said on Newsnight.

As has been pointed out to you in very simple detail - you're wrong; as an EU citizen, you can walk into a hospital or GP in any member state, and be treated free of charge. Those bloody Europeans - they're so unreasonable!

NO you can't.

Broken wrist in France, pay up, clIm back through insurance
Medivac in Spain, pay up, claim tnrough insurance

Stop reading The Mirror, Tne Star for your "facts"

Had to use the local doctor in nidri on lefkada last year. I had to pay even though I showed him my EU card. Must have been a private practitioner. So I'm not paranoid .. just used the wrong doctor

Don't know how to post links but Google Nigerian woman has quads on NHS . I suppose half a million quid is peanuts. We are mugs.

It’s always the same. Those with agendas to keep people from realising they’re being mugged off put out stories that are easily swallowed.

Benefits Street – “the poor are to blame”

Bendy Bananas – “the EU are to blame”

Nigerian woman gives birth – “foreigners bleeding the NHS dry it’s their fault I can’t get treatment”.


You’re being had.

Meanwhile those to blame get away with it.

And your agenda. Hating people being right?

I'm not being had. I know the NHS needs more funding,...it always will no matter how much we put in. However people who use the NHS who aren't entitled don't help. As I have said before it's not just the money it's the principle. I think they're cheeky gets.

What do you suggest we do to children born 3 months prematurely - throw them out onto the streets?

It’s been underfunded for the past 9 years. That’s government policy. It would be coping a lot better but for that policy.




It’s a tiny problem compared with the underfunding. In the Trust I work for the admin of collecting money for care actually costs more than it raises.

Sent her back to Nigeria before she had them. The state's had no problem turning her away. We can't treat the world we haven't got enough for our own citizens. Maybe it would have sent a message out that we're not a soft touch.

Wasn't an option was it?

If a woman goes into labour she can't just be put on a plane. Same as anyone else with a medical emergency.

The USA sent her on her way before she went into labour.

If we hadn't treated her there could've been four dead babies. That'd show we're not a soft touch alright. If you're advocating that then there's no point in discussing any further.

Enough with the facts please.

Why did she leave Nigeria when she was so close to giving birth? Probably to use the emotional blackmail of "dead babies" that you have fallen for. Nobody wants to see anyone die but pulling on our heartstrings and goodwill leaves us open to being used.

The story is quite clear. She was under the impression that she had care fixed up in the USA. She was 3 months off her due date. so not "so close to giving birth".

When that turned out not to be the case she headed back to Nigeria. While on her way back she went into labour. She couldn't just be put on a plane out of Heathrow when that happened.

What do you suggest in this case should we have done differently? Forced her to cross her legs til she got home?

Not entirely true that is it. My impression is that she was trying it on in the state's because she"wanted"to give birth there and was sent packing because she couldn't pay for it. Then we ended up being the unlucky recipients

I had an accident on North Sea Ferry in Belgium. Needed stitches ambulance to Blankenberg Hospital. Overnight in hospital, early next day I was asked for my EU card and a bill for ambulance, treatment and one night stay arrived within a week of my return. I then had to claim my costs at NHS Newcastle. Fact.

But the foreigners are bleeding the NHS. Every time I’m in any department there’s plenty foreigners in the waiting rooms which will be making waiting times longer and costing the taxpayers. Foreigners aren’t crippling the NHS on their own, I’d say final salary pensions, pointless managers, waste, being ripped off by suppliers and contractors because it’s the NHS all play their part.

The UK is seen as a free hospital by foreigners who come and visit and viola ‘Looks like I need a new kidney whilst I’m here’, or ‘I’ll just visit the UK whilst I’m 9 months pregnant’. I know for a fact elderly Asians come to visit relatives in the UK just so they can get free treatment for whatever ailments on the NHS.

And don’t go down the ‘The NHS would collapse if not for foreign workers’. There are plenty who all play their part but they’re workers, there’s plenty doctors and nurses but there’s plenty British doctors and nurses. Foreigners play their part but foreigners also take the Mick. The left only believe they play their part, the right believe they only take the Mick. I’m saying both happens.

What would you have done differently when she went into labour at Heathrow?

Great anecdotal evidence there.

Go to your nearest hospital and look for yourself.