medical treatment for 5-month US visitor with no insurance

Californian fiancée is staying with me in London for 5 months, July - December, to see if we really want to do this marriage thing properly. So awesome to have her here!

Unfortunately her back/hip injury from about a year ago is pretty painful. I am looking for advice on how to find UK medical treatment.

She is a temporary visitor, no visa (had a difficult time getting into the country actually - that is another post), no GP, Kaiser coverage in the US, no medical insurance to cover this trip. I have a London GP, although my GP registration address is not the same as the one where we are currently living. Is it possible to get her seen/treated under the NHS and pay for this? If yes is it possible to avoid the tricky GP registration? Or are we forced to use the private system only?

Many thanks!

It is possible to be seen and treated on the NHS but she will need to pay for all of her treatment (except anything that falls under being free to all, such as emergency treatment). GP treatment should be straightforward - she just gets treatment as a temporary visitor to the surgery instead of a fully registered patient.

However, because she does not have any health/travel insurance she will be required to pay 150% of the regular price for all treatment.


Sent from my iPod using Tapatalk

Awesome thank you - did not realise it was possible to register as a visitor with an NHS medical practice. Will try. I am guessing 150% of NHS costs will still be lower than a private practice + I would prefer NHS as the first route.

Yeah, it's pretty simple to register as a visitor - my brothers and I did this when we were away at uni and needed to go to the GP when we were visiting home in the holidays.

Funnily enough, I went to the GP as a visitor once and he asked if I was visiting family in the area. Thing was, I had been registered at that surgery since birth, my parents lived around the corner, I went to school with his daughter and I'd even been to his house before (his wife was also a doctor at the practice and she knew me, but he obviously didn't, lol). The only reason I was considered a visitor was because I was now registered at my uni health centre 100 miles away instead.

Not sure what the actual costs will be... Because she will need to pay full price of the treatment/medical plus an extra 50%... And we don't really know what the full prices will be because we never have to pay them ourselves on the NHS


Sent from my iPod using Tapatalk

Oh dear RE doctor story! I suppose if you are a GP it gets difficult to keep track of all the people you know.

My part of London is more international than most so hopefully the medical practice will know stuff for foreigners (famous last words..) Just got a private quote which is 150-250 for first consultation, and then 400+ for an MRI if required. I just have more trust in the NHS system.

Keep all your paperwork for future visa applications proving that you've paid.  Without it, it'll really slow your application down.

Thank you for the tip

Not so much a tip, more that it's basically a requirement.

When she comes to applying for a visa to move here, she will need to declare any NHS treatment she has had as a visitor, what date it occurred, the address of the surgery/hospital where she was treated, and whether she paid for it. She will also need to include the receipt of payment.

If she has more than £1,000 in unpaid NHS charges, it's an automatic visa refusal, so you will need to provide proof that she has paid for all her treatment.


Sent from my iPod using Tapatalk

When my mother was visiting a couple years ago, she fell and separated her shoulder. We took her to the hospital and though she was ready and willing to pay for it, she never got charged! I guess they counted it as emergency treatment even though it wasn't dire or anything. We love the NHS!

When my mother was visiting a couple years ago, she fell and separated her shoulder. We took her to the hospital and though she was ready and willing to pay for it, she never got charged! I guess they counted it as emergency treatment even though it wasn't dire or anything. We love the NHS!

If it's considered emergency treatment in A&E, then it will be free (I think sometimes a GP visit may be free too). However, as soon as it stops being classed as an emergency, you have to start paying... for example, if you are given a prescription, moved to a ward, or treated again later as an out-patient for the same problem.

They won't necessarily give you a bill automatically, because they aren't used to having to charge for treatment and some staff may never have even issued a bill to anyone before, so it's something you have to push for and insist that they do, if you believe you should be paying for it.

So, it's up to you to find out the rules for visitors, to know whether you should have paid or not, and if they say it's free when actually you think you should have been charged, you need to insist that they bill you for the treatment.

Alternatively they refuse to bill you, get them to write a letter stating that you tried to pay, but that they have decided that you do not need to be charged - that way you have proof for immigration if it ever comes up/if you apply for a visa in future (because if you have more than £1,000 in unpaid NHS debt, it's an automatic visa refusal).

Update to the original post: following ksand24's advice fiancée just had an NHS GP appointment and successfully got refereed for an X-ray! And paid £45 for first appointment (we are carefully keeping the receipt)! Our local surgery initially refused a visitor, then agreed, charged for first appointment OK, now turns out they have completed the wrong kind of X-ray referral form which should have been a special kind of private treatment form - but it is totally moving forward hooray!

If she has more than £1,000 in unpaid NHS charges, it's an automatic visa refusal, so you will need to provide proof that she has paid for all her treatment.

They changed that to £500 from 6 April 2016.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/507694/Overseas_chargeable_patients_2016.pdf

no medical insurance to cover this trip.

That could end up costing thousands if she has a medical emergency. Can she buy insurance for the rest of her stay?

They changed that to £500 from 6 April 2016.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/507694/Overseas_chargeable_patients_2016.pdf

Oh, wow - thanks... I didn't realise they'd changed it .

Oh, wow - thanks... I didn't realise they'd changed it .

Nor did I until this morning when I read that on another forum I was wondering which section to put that change under, when I saw your post