HEALTH SERVICES: FOREIGN NATIONALS
Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that those patients referred by a GP to a hospital for treatment who are not eligible for free secondary care are identified and appropriately charged.
Dr Daniel Poulter, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health: The Department is working to develop and implement a comprehensive package of measures to support the National Health Service to correctly identify patients who should be charged for their healthcare.
We have worked to encourage better communication between secondary care providers and general practitioners (GPs) once a chargeable patient has been identified. A toolbox for NHS Overseas Visitor Managers was published online in September 2014 that provided support materials on charging. This also includes template letters to enable providers to notify GPs if one of their patients is deemed chargeable.
The NHS cost recovery programme is also focusing on engagement with GPs and primary care providers to help them understand the charging rules. We will also encourage better dialogue between primary and secondary care providers to ensure a process of early identification and appropriate charging.
The Cost Recovery Team’s Implementation Plan (published July 2014) identified several strategies for cost recovery from European Economic Area (EEA) member states and non-EEA chargeable patients, which include:
- The EEA incentive – launched on 1 October 2014
- The non-EEA incentive and sanction – expected to go live in April 2015
- The non-EEA health surcharge - expected to go live in April 2015.
As outlined in the Government’s response to the public consultation (published December 2013), in the interest of public health, the Department has no intention of making GP and nurse consultations in primary care chargeable for patients who would not otherwise be eligible for free NHS treatment. This includes people who are illegally here in the United Kingdom or on temporary visitor visas.