| Chapter
3: Charges - NHS and Private Patients |
Statutory/Manual
References |
| NHS Patients |
|
| 1. Patients charged under the
Regulations are "charged NHS patients", and not private patients.
The difference between private and NHS care should be explained to the patient. |
Chapter 7 |
| 2. Patients should be asked to
sign an undertaking to pay though this is not necessary to make the NHS
charges legally valid. A model NHS charges undertaking to pay form is at Appendix D. |
Appendix D |
| 3. Consultants are not
allowed to charge charged NHS patients for their services. The treatment of such patients
is subject to the same clinical priority as that of other NHS patients. An overseas
visitor assessed as exempt from NHS charges is not exempt for those charges
explicitly provided for in legislation. They are therefore subject to the same
prescription charges and relevant exemptions as other NHS patients. |
|
| Private Patients |
|
| 4. Overseas visitors seeking
treatment in a NHS hospital may, if they wish and their consultants agree,
be treated as private patients. NHS hospital consultants - using procedures agreed with
their management - have a responsibility to identify to their management, in writing, the
status of any private in-patients or out-patients who use NHS hospital facilities. |
1978 Act S.57 Chapter 7 |
| Fees and Private Patients |
|
| 5. When an overseas visitor is
charged for NHS care under the Regulations, the consultant may not charge a
fee. A consultant, who is in a position to offer a "liable" overseas patient
treatment as a private patient, should point out to them that: |
|
|
i. a fee will be charged over and above the hospital
charges; and
|
|
|
ii. (if patient has health care insurance) not
all insurance schemes cover all private treatment costs.
|
|
| Note: If a patient agrees to be a private patient, the Stage
2 officer and the relevant Finance Department should be told as soon as possible. |
|
| Overriding EC Regulations |
|
| 6. EC Regulations (Article 93 of
574/72) oblige the UK Departments of Health to claim back from other EEA member states the
actual cost of NHS care given to overseas visitors who come to the UK specifically for
treatment. A EC exemption form E112 or E123 will need to be presented by the overseas
patient concerned, and forwarded by the NHS hospital to: Benefits Agency Pensions and
Overseas Benefits Directorate
Medical Benefits Section
Tyneview Park
Whitley Road
Newcastle
NE98 1BA. |
Chapter 12 |
