The government have insisted upon changes to Johnny Foreigner’s access to medical treatment. Migrant workers will have to pay for accidents and emergencies. Oh, not immediately. The Tories have held back from instructing nurses and doctors to rummage through pockets of patients for the fees. An emergency will receive treatment will be permitted but a bill presented soon afterwards with no follow up care without payment. This is almost the same situation that exists in USA where all private hospitals must stabilise a patient , and once that is done, discharge him or her or transfer to a public hospital. Nor does it take into account that under current EU rules the NHS is already able to request compensation for medical costs from another EU country if it the patients home country. There are also a list of non-EU with reciprocal agreements such as the Ukraine, Bosnia, and Serbia.
It would be easy to justify such inhumanity to foreigners under the guise of curtailing healthy tourism which over-stretches the medical resources and over-load already stretched hospital capacity. It is very easy to seek a scape-goat for government policy and who is the most vulnerable but some foreigner, blamed for taking advantage of the host country’s generousity.
In todays Independent Dr Clifford Mann, President of the College of Emergency Medicine, explains that health professionals warned of an imminent crisis because the NHS was failing to recruit enough new A&E doctors. "The first warning signs were three years ago when we failed to recruit to 50 per cent of our posts - that was 2010," Dr Mann said. "Those concerns were raised at the time. We failed to recruit enough staff again the next year." Dr Mann said that the problems were a consequence of a staffing crisis that has left the country short of around 375 emergency doctors - which over the course of a year means; "750,000 patients per year who aren't going to be seen". He added: "They're never going to exist, we've lost that opportunity. It takes four years to train and you can't just be parachuted into the fourth year."
Casualty wards up and down the country are under intense pressure this winter, with seasonal illnesses driving up demand for hospital beds, with a knock-on effect for emergency admissions.A&E wards missed waiting times targets two weeks in a row before Christmas. Winter pressures last year contributed to the worst A&E performance in nine years.
It would be easy to justify such inhumanity to foreigners under the guise of curtailing healthy tourism which over-stretches the medical resources and over-load already stretched hospital capacity. It is very easy to seek a scape-goat for government policy and who is the most vulnerable but some foreigner, blamed for taking advantage of the host country’s generousity.
In todays Independent Dr Clifford Mann, President of the College of Emergency Medicine, explains that health professionals warned of an imminent crisis because the NHS was failing to recruit enough new A&E doctors. "The first warning signs were three years ago when we failed to recruit to 50 per cent of our posts - that was 2010," Dr Mann said. "Those concerns were raised at the time. We failed to recruit enough staff again the next year." Dr Mann said that the problems were a consequence of a staffing crisis that has left the country short of around 375 emergency doctors - which over the course of a year means; "750,000 patients per year who aren't going to be seen". He added: "They're never going to exist, we've lost that opportunity. It takes four years to train and you can't just be parachuted into the fourth year."
Casualty wards up and down the country are under intense pressure this winter, with seasonal illnesses driving up demand for hospital beds, with a knock-on effect for emergency admissions.A&E wards missed waiting times targets two weeks in a row before Christmas. Winter pressures last year contributed to the worst A&E performance in nine years.
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