Can anyone give me the benefit of their wisdom regarding treatment of
overseas visitors? We have a practice policy of charging every non-EEC
resident for treatment,more on a matter of principle than anything else
as when we holiday abroad anywhere we take out insurance.Even in the EEC
health coverage is very uneven and to trust to local "free" provision
could be very brave.This generates little income but sometimes
aggravation from patients who don't see why their aunt from Australia
should have to pay but we try to stick to our guns.The alternative of
signing the patients on as TRs- which the FSHA are happy for us to do-
actually costs the NHS money.An extreme case highlighted this to me. I
was doing an overnight session for Healthcall a few weeks ago when I had
a night visit to a pleasant enough Aussie lady. She was quite happy to
pay but the logistics didn't seem to be in place.Thus as it stands the
GP who Healthcall "allocated" her as a TR got about 10 of NHS money and
20 of NHS night visit fee and had to pay Healthcall 34 for the
visit=net loss to the GP who's never set eyes on the patient and the NHS
30+ out of pocket
Any thoughts?
Best wishes,
Peter Glover
Rayleigh,Essex
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Peter Glover
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