Visiting the UK. Health Coverage ?

ntg said:
A&E, where emergencies get to wait for errr 4 hours before they are seen by a non-specialised doctor because they are..emergencies..

NHS is a shambles..

OP, if you get seriously ill while here on holidays you'll be seen quicker if you take a flight back to the US and go to the ER there. Really, you'll probably have to wait longer in A&E that it'll take you to fly back..
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Sweeping statement but there are emergencies and there are emergencies.

I doubt you'll be wait 4 hours if you go in with a gun shot wound to the chest...
 
sounds like a "medical" holiday........ for a free procedure... and the op just wanrt's to know if he can be chased for monies
 
ntg said:
A&E, where emergencies get to wait for errr 4 hours before they are seen by a non-specialised doctor because they are..emergencies..

NHS is a shambles..

OP, if you get seriously ill while here on holidays you'll be seen quicker if you take a flight back to the US and go to the ER there. Really, you'll probably have to wait longer in A&E that it'll take you to fly back..
Click to expand...

I've never waited 4 hours when I've been taken in with various injuries and none have been what I'd class as anything major.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Sweeping statement but there are emergencies and there are emergencies.

I doubt you'll be wait 4 hours if you go in with a gun shot wound to the chest...
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Agreed, however how 'serious' your injury or illness is depends on the discretion of the receptionist as far as I've seen. Unless you got an open wound and bleeding on the floor then it's up to the receptionist to 'judge' whether you need to be seen immediately or not.

For instance, a pregnant lady who came in claiming that she was bleeding was told to wait, and she did, for at least two hours until I had to leave..and kept waiting..

Or perhaps another woman who came in with an ambulance with excruciating abdominal pain and was told to stand until they would find her a bed. Yes, STAND, no chair, no nothing..it took about 45 mins to find her somewhere to lie down while she was on her knees with pain.

Oh hold on, I got another one. Pregnant woman arrives at the midwives office claiming she is under severe pain. Was seen by a trainee after 4 hours. Trainee told her to go home, she didn't and demanded to see a doctor. The obstetrician/surgeon came after 7 hours to discover she had severe pelvic infection.

Ahh good old NHS!

Or maybe I'm just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure it can't be all that bad.
 
ntg said:
Agreed, however how 'serious' your injury or illness is depends on the discretion of the receptionist as far as I've seen. Unless you got an open wound and bleeding on the floor then it's up to the receptionist to 'judge' whether you need to be seen immediately or not.

For instance, a pregnant lady who came in claiming that she was bleeding was told to wait, and she did, for at least two hours until I had to leave..and kept waiting..

Or perhaps another woman who came in with an ambulance with excruciating abdominal pain and was told to stand until they would find her a bed. Yes, STAND, no chair, no nothing..it took about 45 mins to find her somewhere to lie down while she was on her knees with pain.

Oh hold on, I got another one. Pregnant woman arrives at the midwives office claiming she is under severe pain. Was seen by a trainee after 4 hours. Trainee told her to go home, she didn't and demanded to see a doctor. The obstetrician/surgeon came after 7 hours to discover she had severe pelvic infection.

Ahh good old NHS!

Or maybe I'm just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure it can't be all that bad.
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As with any service, you'll get good and bad.
I've never had a bad experience in multiple A+E visits.
 
ntg said:
Agreed, however how 'serious' your injury or illness is depends on the discretion of the receptionist as far as I've seen. Unless you got an open wound and bleeding on the floor then it's up to the receptionist to 'judge' whether you need to be seen immediately or not.

For instance, a pregnant lady who came in claiming that she was bleeding was told to wait, and she did, for at least two hours until I had to leave..and kept waiting..

Or perhaps another woman who came in with an ambulance with excruciating abdominal pain and was told to stand until they would find her a bed. Yes, STAND, no chair, no nothing..it took about 45 mins to find her somewhere to lie down while she was on her knees with pain.

Oh hold on, I got another one. Pregnant woman arrives at the midwives office claiming she is under severe pain. Was seen by a trainee after 4 hours. Trainee told her to go home, she didn't and demanded to see a doctor. The obstetrician/surgeon came after 7 hours to discover she had severe pelvic infection.

Ahh good old NHS!

Or maybe I'm just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure it can't be all that bad.
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Sorry but how do you know these people?

Or are you just making up a load of old cobblers or relaying stories people have told you?
 
pitchfork said:
Sorry but how do you know these people?

Or are you just making up a load of old cobblers or relaying stories people have told you?
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I've witnessed it first hand on my visits to A&E and for other reasons that I was at midwives offices for some days. I won't be disclosing more details but it's first hand accounts.

EDIT: Btw, what kind of thinking is that? why would I make stuff up - did I hurt your mighty-blighty ideals? Do you also believe all the recent hospital scandals were 'made up'? Wake up to the fact that NHS is failing a lot of people across the country and it's not your perfect healthcare system.
 
ntg said:
Agreed, however how 'serious' your injury or illness is depends on the discretion of the receptionist as far as I've seen.
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This isn't the case in the 6 or so hospitals I've been in within Hampshire. Receptionists book you in and then you are seen a short while later by a triage nurse who assesses the severity of your condition and will prioritise based on that clinical assessment.
 
Castiel said:
A&E is free to all, you may be charged if you are admitted to the hospital or given an outpatient referral. In any case you will still be treated if the problem is life threatening or may turn into a life threatening problem if left untreated....the simplest solution is to get travel insurance.
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Not quite true. Whilst you will be treated at A&E which is free at point of use, if you are admitted then the A&E treatment will often be included as part of the whole bill to insurance companies.
 
arknor said:
sounds like a "medical" holiday........ for a free procedure... and the op just wanrt's to know if he can be chased for monies
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Does work in the UK because the waiting list is 6-9 months old, Nd that is if they ever successfully diagnose you before you die of cancer.
 
ntg said:
Agreed, however how 'serious' your injury or illness is depends on the discretion of the receptionist as far as I've seen. Unless you got an open wound and bleeding on the floor then it's up to the receptionist to 'judge' whether you need to be seen immediately or not.

For instance, a pregnant lady who came in claiming that she was bleeding was told to wait, and she did, for at least two hours until I had to leave..and kept waiting..

Or perhaps another woman who came in with an ambulance with excruciating abdominal pain and was told to stand until they would find her a bed. Yes, STAND, no chair, no nothing..it took about 45 mins to find her somewhere to lie down while she was on her knees with pain.

Oh hold on, I got another one. Pregnant woman arrives at the midwives office claiming she is under severe pain. Was seen by a trainee after 4 hours. Trainee told her to go home, she didn't and demanded to see a doctor. The obstetrician/surgeon came after 7 hours to discover she had severe pelvic infection.

Ahh good old NHS!

Or maybe I'm just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure it can't be all that bad.
Click to expand...

Or the 2 good friends of the family, who both independently have recently been diagnosed with very late stage and probably inoperable prostate cancer despite regularly visiting the GP and complaining of all sorts of symptoms while getting fobbed off. Then when they eventually got blood work do e one waited 2 months and the other 4 months to get the results - by which time both of them have deteriorated massively have have poor outlooks.
 
D.P. said:
Or the 2 good friends of the family, who both independently have recently been diagnosed with very late stage and probably inoperable prostate cancer despite regularly visiting the GP and complaining of all sorts of symptoms while getting fobbed off. Then when they eventually got blood work do e one waited 2 months and the other 4 months to get the results - by which time both of them have deteriorated massively have have poor outlooks.
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Which is completely counter to the experience of pretty much everyone I know and their treatment in the UK, one of whom is being treated for bladder cancer right now. However I know one person close to me who died in the US because they simply couldn't afford the treatment and kept being pushed from one community hospital to another, just for want of decent medical insurance.
 
ntg said:
A&E, where emergencies get to wait for errr 4 hours before they are seen by a non-specialised doctor because they are..emergencies..

NHS is a shambles..

OP, if you get seriously ill while here on holidays you'll be seen quicker if you take a flight back to the US and go to the ER there. Really, you'll probably have to wait longer in A&E that it'll take you to fly back..
Click to expand...

Triage, a bruised shin might wait 4+ hours a serious head injury might wait less than 4 seconds.
 
arknor said:
sounds like a "medical" holiday........ for a free procedure... and the op just wanrt's to know if he can be chased for monies
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Christ, these forums. We couldn't even make it to the end of page 1 before the first xenophobic comment about health tourism. Let me point two things out to you:

1) The OP is a British ex-pat, as is his wife.

2) His children have two British parents and as such are automatically eligible for British citizenship if they ever want to live in the mother country.

So you're literally saying that people who are 100% ethnic British, and in two cases of four are also actual British citizens, are furriners coming over here to sponge off our system.
 
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