Health Services: Foreign Nationals

(asked on 3rd September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria are used by NHS Trust employees to request proof of an individual’s eligibility to receive free hospital healthcare.


Answered by
Steve Barclay Portrait
Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This question was answered on 11th September 2018

The National Health Service is a residency-based healthcare system, with a requirement to be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom in order to access NHS-funded healthcare. Providers of relevant NHS services are required to make and recover charges from overseas visitors where relevant services have been provided to them and no exemption applies.

There is no requirement on NHS staff to check a patient’s identification and asking for, or providing, ID is not a requirement of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2017. It is up to providers of NHS care to assure themselves that they do everything reasonable to determine a patient’s eligibility for NHS-funded healthcare. National guidance advises them to be flexible in terms of accepting evidence to demonstrate a patient’s residence or chargeable status, including considering the position of particularly vulnerable patients who may struggle to provide documentation.

Reticulating Splines