The blade story is funny....but, let's be honest, it's fraud. P.S I'm not a totally honest person...just jumping on the pedant boat for five mins.

I have to say, I´m rather shocked by your response. I would have thought you could have left your politics at the door and offered some useful advice to people who are obviously in need of it.

Given that you had to bring politics into this, I would ask you to provide some actual facts and statistics on this so called ´health tourism´because I am unable to find any. I am interested to know if this an actual problem or is nothing more than part of the recent onslaught from the right-wing gutter press to deflect blame away from the banking crisis and mismanagment of the economy, onto the usual scapegoat - immigrants.

I did a bit of googling, but only came up with reports that no one actual knows how much so called "health tourism" costs the NHS per year. As far as I was concerned, anyone from an EU or commonweath countries with healthcare agreements, the NHS bills the government of the patient, and so costs are covered in this respect. As a sidenote, the government did claim the figure of 11m GBP as the lowest estimate (i.e. made up) cost of health tourism to the UK taxpayer, later they gave a rather vauge figure of £70m and £300m, any of those figuers set against 'efficiency savings´(i.e. cuts), of 20 billion GBP, perhaps you are barking up the wrong tree mate.

Interestingly, in study here, it states that, in actual fact, so called ´health tourism´actually benefits the NHS in terms of profit, it´s a long read, but worth it perhaps if you feel so strongly as to turn up here and start bringing tabloid politics into a thread that is quite clearly a call for help from people who do not have so many options left. For me, that is very "unBritish", but then maybe my values of Britishness are somewhat dated.

Best regards,
rtw

If you read my previous posts properly you will see that my view is based on my own experience of working in the NHS, not that of the papers, which I don't actually read anyway for the very reasons you suggest.

As also stated, my wife is from overseas, eastern europe in fact, as are many of my friends and acquaintances. One of my best friends from my university days is muslim, as are many more of my friends and acquaintances, so I am actually quite sensitive to the gutter press' ill thought out, ill judged and frequently inaccurate reporting on immigration and the current hysteria over muslims and eastern europeans, none of which is relevant to this subject anyway.

Your post is irrelevant to the discussion as my post was not based on any particular view I may or may not have on immigration. Neither was it suggesting any value on the cost to the NHS. It was a statement of fact that someone who is not entitled to NHS care should not expect it and that the treatment of people who are not entitled has a cost (of, shall we agree, an unknown amount) which has to be found from an already overstretched service.

I would have thought it was useful advice to know that, after the difficulty and expense of getting to the UK, he may find he was told he is not eligible for treatment (as stated in the post of mine you have quoted). I would quite like to know that was a possibility before I set off. The NHS is tightening up on these things so you cannot assume treatment will be given.

Am I unbritish, well, I guess that depends on how you view over 20 years of service in her Majesty's Armed Forces!

My daughter lives in NZ and I have been a frequent visitor over the last few years.
I wouldn't dream of not having full insurance irrespective of any agreement between countries. What you certainly don't need in any medical situation is someone having to look through the bureaucracy & lying about what's happened!

What's so odd about this case is the accident occurred in Croatia and not the UK.
What exactly can't they do in Croatia that we can do in the UK? Apart from provide free treatment?
If that's the only answer for travelling to the UK, then quite clearly this is an abuse of our NHS rather than having an insurance company pay for private treatment - either in the UK or Croatia. If insurance has been taken out, why not go to Germany?

Fair points.

It's been 5 days since this post was made. What is the state of play with regard to Deane's treatment?

That was my thought process also, except for the bit about Germany - why Germany in particular (although the Croats have had a close relationship with that country, in the past)?


If it was me, I wouldn't answer that until the dust has settled and there is an "end-state".

Its an interesting aspect of this discussion to look (where possible) at the originating locations of those leaving comments or likes and how those are reflected in the nature of the posts.

Biker down?
 

I second Chris's request for an update on Deane's treatment and condition.

thanks xfiltrate

Update
 

Not quite the (medical) endstate, but near enough for most people.

Back to my physio. :thumbup1:

Sorry
 

Check back in here and I think you will find that this was always on the cards - from the viewpoint of the insurance company it was always going to be that way.

To contrast for a moment with my earlier, brief, description of my circumstances - I was injured in a far away, foreign land and made my own decision to fly myself back to the UK for the NHS to sort out (as above, I am still receiving physio treatment, renewed recently 4 years after the fateful day).
Such a decision is easy so long as you are a "walking wounded" - stretcher cases etc would be a much more difficult case.
No insurance company was involved and I was very circumspect in answering questions in A&E, although I did have a letter of referral from a doctor based in the "country of injury" along with X rays of the damage done - no local hospital could handle the type of injury.
There were no dramas at the UK A&E, being a loyal subject of Her Majesty the Queen, back in country with a bit of a problem (Moggys' info applies).

Folks can draw their own lessons applicable to their own circumstances, as they wish.

glad they got sorted. Probably better back in NZ with familiar surroundings, family and friends.

Biker in New Zealand
 

thanks for the update, based on my experiences with Kiwis, namely Jeff Condon Globebusters.com guide, now safari camp manager in Tanzania, the Kiwi is comfortable just about anywhere in the world, makes new friends easily and usually has an estranged or far away relationship with their extended families and like it that way.

Just as I might be projecting here, so should we all be aware of our own cultural bias.

Good the medical treatment has been sorted and we look forward to meeting welovebikes, Deane and Heidi on the road.

Meanwhile we are at our ranch in Flagstaff, AZ and looking forward to the visits of fellow overlanders.

xfiltrate