xenophobic?
interesting assumption as I am married to a non UK national! Also, I didn't mention anything about nationality, race, colour, religion or anything else that would possibly quantify someone as xenophobic. I said people who have paid into the system. They might be white, black or green and come from mars.


note the part in the recipricol arrangement

for a condition that arose after arrival into New Zealand, OR became, or without treatment would have become, acutely exacerbated after arrival.

for New Zealand substitute UK, as it's a recipricol agreement

BTW I have worked in the NHS for 25 years. I also worked in aeromed for several years bringing back damaged holidaymakers from abroad, so I probably have a bit more insight into this the some of the more hysterical, but not entirely unexpected, reactions to my post. I have also seen many members of the 'barmy army', or just regular holiday makers who have come back from abroad (even from Europe) having had to pay for treatment, received no treatment, or received extremely substandard treatment. The main moral of the story, is get good insurance that covers you for everything you will be doing.

whether he gets treatment will depend on how carefully the hospital he visits checks peoples entitlement. I would suggest avoiding the London ones as they are the most keen as they suffer most from the health tourist issue. I have seen people present at my hospital for treatment because they have been turned away by London Hospitals.

My statement stands and I will not be retracting it. It is not an opinion, it is a statement of fact. If you don't like it, well, sorry, that's reality for you. It is not a service for foreign nationals who have injured themselves in other countries who should be carrying the appropriate insurance for the activities they are taking part in to be either treated in that country or aeromedded back home. Maybe they don't recognise the term health tourist because they don't get them in New Zealand, but in this country it is a significant problem.


I wish your friend well in his recovery, but it is not the responsibility of the NHS to deal with that. It is already stretched to treat those that are entitled. Whether he gets treatment or not is of course, a different matter. He may, (in fact, probably will) but he needs to be prepared for the fact that equally he may not.