Scalpel tourists

October 20, 2009  •  Andalucia  •  5 Comments

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EXPATRIATES have been accused of taking advantage of the liberal Spanish health service.

It comes as hospitals on the Costa del Sol are being stretched due to the extra demand from Britons owning homes on the coast.

Many are long-term UK residents who fly out to avoid NHS waiting lists or receive treatment that would otherwise not be provided for them back home.

In particular, hip and cataract operations are the procedures most sought after by Britons now flocking to Spain.

“We get an increasing number of cases of foreigners who are taking advantage of the fact that they own a home on the Costa del Sol,” said Costa del Sol Hospital general manager Antonio Perez.

“Knowing that their own country does not cover all that we offer in Andalucía, they decide to come here,” he added.

Dubbed “health scroungers” and “dippers” these Britons form part of a growing contingent of people from the UK, Germany and Scandinavia, who cherry pick Spain’s health services.

Former Extremadura leader Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ibarra warned this week that “scrounge tourism” was bleeding money out of Spain’s health service.
The phenomenon is now increasingly being covered in the Spanish press.

Leading Spanish daily ABC commented recently: “Thousands of people from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia travel to Spain every year for operations that frequently are not covered by their own health system.”

In a letter written to 20 minutos, a Spaniard wrote that his English neighbours in Murcia only came to Spain for an operation and left immediately afterwards.

“As soon as he was allowed out of hospital they packed their bags and went home, not without first thanking us Spaniards for everything,” wrote Francisco Avila.

Charity Age Care in Fuengirola, confirmed that many expatriates were using their European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) to receive treatment in a bid to avoid officially signing up for the Spanish health service.

Vice President Maurice Featherman explained: “People are coming out here with their health card and trying to claim emergency care and this is really straining the Spanish health system.

“They are not attempting to register because they are frightened of being increasingly taxed by the Spanish government, which is nonsense.

“The problem is rife here, people are abusing their European health cards and it is getting worse.”

“Now the expatriates who abide by the law are getting angry as they are all tarnished by the same brush.”

“The problem is rife here, people are abusing their European health cards and it is getting worse.”

His colleague Charles Betty however, insisted that the authorities were starting to clamp down on this issue.

Health trade union, Simap, confirmed that non-Spanish EU nationals in Alicante – with Britons by far the largest group – now accounted for up to 20 per cent of those treated in the region’s hospitals.

Dr Juan Benedito of Simap said: “Spain’s health service is quick, free and offers a wide range of services. It is not surprising that people come here.”

The ability to skip long NHS waiting lists is often the deciding factor for expatriates who share their time equally between Britain and Spain.

One patient, Bryan Arthur opted to have an aortic valve operation at a Costa Blanca hospital simply because he could be treated in two months, as opposed to six.

He wrote on the euroresidentes website: “The surgeon in the Costa Blanca hospital spoke English quite well, said I was in urgent need of attention and could accept me in two months and the charge would be on their national health service.

“So I signed the papers, had the preliminary catheterising and eventually was admitted.”

Reader Comments »

Justin R

October 20th, 2009 12:25 pm

Why does the SAS not send out bills, but not only that, why don’t they chase these bills up and making sure they get paid? Or even insist on payment upfront if rights to treatment can’t be proved?

No good bleating about health tourism when systems are so lax that any old Joe Bloggs can get into a hospital and have their hip or whatever replaced.

My brother in law, non Spanish resident, non EU resident in fact, got DVT after a trip to Spain. Treatment was excellent, sorted him out, and they said the bill would be in the post. Three years later… not a sausage.

On a completely different point, I was just wondering when Francisco Avila was going to thank the British, Germans and French for all the EU funds which have driven development in Spain over the last 20 odd years? Spain does not become a net contributor to the EU until 2013…

Fred

October 20th, 2009 1:31 pm

This article seems to have been changed and republished for some reason, so let me repeat the facts. In Spain, if you are a pensioner and a resident, you are entitled to free recipricol healthcare. There is no “scalpel tourism” for people who are resident here and paying into the tax system, and likewise for resident pensioners too, who are quite entitled to have all the treatment thay require under EU law.

Spain will bill the UK if paperwork is not in order. This frequently does not happen of course, and then the UK gets the blame for Spain’s inefficient paperwork procedures, which are notoriously error prone. In other words, they just forget to bill the correct country and then their figures are skewed and they start blaming the expats.

As Justin correctly points out, Spain gets billions of euros from the EU, so they need to stop moaning and get their house in order, and they also need to stop publishing incorrect information about how foreigners are “cheating” the system.

There is no “scrounge tourism” – Spain bills the UK when paperwork is not in order, or else the person is LEGALLY entitled to the treatment as a pensioner or as a person who is resident and tax resident. Simple as that.

If a Spaniard came to the UK for treatment, there would be none of this polava.

Fred

October 20th, 2009 1:40 pm

Regarding EHIC, this is for emergency treatment. It is nonsense to suggest people use EHIC for larger medical procedures. If they are, then it’s quite simple – Spain needs to say NO. This whole issue is a ‘non-problem’ – the systems are already in place to handle all of these procedures, so it must surely be Spain that is not implementing the necessary checks.

The OP does love to write articles that stir up controversy where none exists…

Chris

October 20th, 2009 2:51 pm

‘The OP does love to write articles that stir up controversy where none exists…’

Wonder if they might have a job for you then Fred!

Fred

October 20th, 2009 3:14 pm

Unfortunately I am too busy with work, and writing is pretty poorly paid too, alas. Anyway, I don’t write the articles Chris, I just comment on them. I notice you didn’t comment on the article content, but instead are just stirring things up again, as normal lol.

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