What is the alternative?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Neil, if my GP sends me to hospital or to a clinic, it is because I am entitled to treatment.
I have been registered with the practice since the early eighties.
If I go to some other location...the Isle of Wight for instance, I can prove who I am with my NI number...I can prove I have paid into the system which I wish to access.
I think we have trodden this ground before.

The point is that hospitals are very poor at collecting their dues when it is blatantly obvious that the person being treated needs to be billed.

Maybe things have changed at out local hospital, but somehow, I very much doubt it.

[taddy]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Neil, if my GP sends me to hospital or to a clinic, it is because I am entitled to treatment.
I have been registered with the practice since the early eighties.
If I go to some other location...the Isle of Wight for instance, I can prove who I am with my NI number...I can prove I have paid into the system which I wish to access.
I think we have trodden this ground before.

The point is that hospitals are very poor at collecting their dues when it is blatantly obvious that the person being treated needs to be billed.

Maybe things have changed at out local hospital, but somehow, I very much doubt it.

Spot on Marge, my wife and I spent three weeks in the afore mentioned Isle of Wight in September, as I was not feeling too chipper after the first couple of days I called into the local medical centre, explained my symptoms and received an appointment with a GP within twenty four hour's.
Without going into detail I was diagnosed with a double infection and was prescribed a seven day supply of a strong antibiotics, once these kicked in we were able to enjoy the rest of our holiday.
Many folk in our great country decry the N.H.S. but to my mind it is still the best in the world, (if you have a genuine complaint).

Your's Taddy.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Glad it served you well Taddy...but my point was wherever I go in these islands that make up the Uk...I have the ability to prove that I am entitled to treatment without having an identity card.

The other point I was making was, it is all well and good to say that those who are NOT entitled, will be charged if there is no one in the trusts who is responsible for doing the chasing of the money then it makes a mockery of the whole thing.
It is 15 years since I worked in the NHS...maybe it has changed, but I seriously doubt it.

It makes absolutely no sense at all to be asking me(who has a hospital record on microfiche going back to the early seventies) if I am liable to pay.
It does make sense to ask those who speak no English, or very little English...those who ask for an interpreter if they are entitled to treatment without charge...and even take financial details before treatment commences(except in dire circumstances).

The questioning has to be profiled...and it should be administrative staff who do this rather than medical personnel.

[taddy]

I agree with you entirely.

[DaveinGermany]

Had to drag this thread back out again due to an article I read today. Is it any wonder the NHS is constantly bleating it's skint? Paying for interpretors (it doesn't happen anywhere else in Europe to my knowledge) & common purpose Judges awarding for the stupid!

Personally I find something not quite right about this incident, the redolent whiff of "compo" taints the air.

Refugee Family Set to Win Millions from NHS for Not Using Foreign Language to Explain Importance of Feeding Newborn | Breitbart

[hilleluk]

Says everything about what is going on in this country...The mother's so called common sense should have come into play here, she should have known how and when to feed her baby, no interpreters needed. Yes Dave you are right it does and probably will have been compensation motivated.

[Margaret Pilkington]

When I worked in the NHS, we spent shed loads of money having patient information leaflets printed in foreign languages.
These were useless as many of the women in our care could not read them as they spoke different dialects.
We employed link workers but theu only worked office hours.
Anyone using any health services should have to find(and if necessary pay for) their own interpreters.
The alternative is to get these women to learn English.
Some of the women I looked after had been here in excess of two decades and still could not speak the language.

[cashman]

Thing is with interpreters, we had to pay for em,when we lived in Spain, never bothered us one bit, and not just for the health service,Mind Spain are obviously not as stupid as the pillocks that decide things here.

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Neil

You are looking at it the wrong way round. Everyone who attends hospital/GP should have to prove they are entitled to treatment or produce a payment means first. Like Dave said happens in Germany.

I don't need any form of identification if I go to any clinic, or out patients in this country, they will know instantly where I come from as soon as I start tawking, and if there still in any doubt, my next words will be in real earthy Anglo Saxon, int broadest Lanky they've ever heard.
A few years back face ache and I were in a garden center int far North of Scotland, and the proprietor said, are you from Blackburn, I replied no but she is, I'm from Accrington, so if a Scots man in the far North, can put me within 5 miles of where I was born, then thats all the identificatiion I need

[KiTChener]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

When I worked in the NHS, we spent shed loads of money having patient information leaflets printed in foreign languages.
These were useless as many of the women in our care could not read them as they spoke different dialects.
We employed link workers but theu only worked office hours.
Anyone using any health services should have to find(and if necessary pay for) their own interpreters.
The alternative is to get these women to learn English.
Some of the women I looked after had been here in excess of two decades and still could not speak the language.

What's the betting that this mother still does not speak English?

[Margaret Pilkington]

it's odds on.
And this is because they do NOT integrate at all.
They spend their lives in their own communities segregated from western life.
They might just as well be back in their own country.
Why would you choose to move to a country whose culture is so vastly different and keep to the old countries ways?

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

it's odds on.
And this is because they do NOT integrate at all.
They spend their lives in their own communities segregated from western life.
They might just as well be back in their own country.
Why would you choose to move to a country whose culture is so vastly different and keep to the old countries ways?

One word " BENEFITS"

[Margaret Pilkington]

yes...I wasn't going to say it....but I thought it.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

yes...I wasn't going to say it....but I thought it.

Thats the difference Margaret, i take no prisoners.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I know that Cashy.