Visitor Visa - NHS cover

[lolo2]

My 76 year old mother has arrived in UK on 6 month visitor visa and intend to stay for couple of months.
It looks like NHS provides very less medical cover and i am looking for some cover even she do not have any illness history. Is a travel insurance better or a medical insurance ?

She needs a medical insurance that covers her during the trip and in the final destination. No company will insure her once she has arrived to the UK.

In England, you still can register her in a local GP surgery for up to three months. She might have access to some services or treatments, and given she is above 65 years old some can be free How to access NHS services in England if you are visiting from abroad

Not every surgery will or can register visitors, so you need to research in your area.

[n8net]

while it is true in-patient hospital treatment is charged for overseas visitors, services from GP surgery are totally free, I know a friend whose mom of same age as OP registered at a GP practice and they did all the blood tests and even gave the medication without any charge!

hope this helps somebody..

If the blood tests were sent to a hospital then they had tp pay and can still be billed. It is not in a visitors own interest to take what they are not allowed. It also gets the laws changed

The fact that the GP surgery has not told this in advance, suggests it is free?

surely, they cannot offer services without informing them they can be billed, and then bill them?

[JB007]

while it is true in-patient hospital treatment is charged for overseas visitors, services from GP surgery are totally free, I know a friend whose mom of same age as OP registered at a GP practice and they did all the blood tests and even gave the medication without any charge!

hope this helps somebody..

If the blood tests were sent to a hospital then they had tp pay and can still be billed. It is not in a visitors own interest to take what they are not allowed. It also gets the laws changed

The fact that the GP surgery has not told this in advance, suggests it is free?

surely, they cannot offer services without informing them they can be billed, and then bill them?

In England, it was not free if a hospital was involed in the test. And of course they can be billed; that's what they have travel/health insurance for.

[blondesafari]

while it is true in-patient hospital treatment is charged for overseas visitors, services from GP surgery are totally free, I know a friend whose mom of same age as OP registered at a GP practice and they did all the blood tests and even gave the medication without any charge!

hope this helps somebody..

This really infuriates British taxpayers. Why should we subsidise your friend’s Mom? I think it’s outrageous! When my Mom comes over, she takes out travel insurance. People who misuse the NHS like this for people who haven’t paid one penny of tax will be the cause of us all having to pay for healthcare in the future.

[JB007]

People who misuse the NHS like this for people who haven’t paid one penny of tax will be the cause of us all having to pay for healthcare in the future.

We already are, it's called private health insurance.

But the present rules for NHS England, are linked above.

Updates are added as the rules change- the latest is because of Brexit. Which means the end of bill free NHS for all the EU citizens and all their family members (unless they are covered under the Withdrawal agreement). These can show their EHIC of the EU country they live in, to GPs, A&E and of course hospitals, for the UK to bill the EU country they are living in, or they now pay themselves. Or they might have an S2 from one of the 27 EU countries for NHS England to check, so that EU country must pay the NHS.

Some of the EEA countries negotiated better deals with the UK for their visiting citizens (or for those who live in their country, depending on what the deal states) and that is a reciprocal agreement, which will benefit British citizens visiting their country.