Immediately necessary treatment is that which a patient needs:
- to save life, or
- to prevent a condition from becoming immediately life-threatening, or
- promptly to prevent permanent serious damage from occurring.
All maternity services, including routine antenatal treatment, are treated as being immediately necessary. Clinicians and other staff should inform pregnant patients that further maternity care will not be withheld, regardless of their ability to pay.
Urgent treatment
Urgent treatment is that which clinicians do not consider immediately necessary, but which nevertheless cannot wait until the person can be reasonably expected to return home.
We do make every effort to secure payment in the time before treatment is scheduled, but if that proves unsuccessful the treatment will not be delayed or withheld for the purposes of securing payment if it is not classified as routine.
While the urgency of treatment is a matter of clinical judgement, this does not mean that the treatment should be unlimited; there may be some room for discretion about the extent of treatment and the time at which it is given.
Any routine appointments must be paid for in advance with the Overseas Visitors Team or the appointment should be cancelled.
Non-urgent treatment
Non-urgent treatment is routine elective treatment that could wait until the patient can return home.
We will not provide non-urgent treatment unless the patient pays the full estimated cost of the treatment in advance. However, to decide if a patient’s need for NHS hospital treatment is urgent or can safely await their return home, clinicians will need to know when a patient can reasonably be expected to return home. The decision can be made based on this information and a clinician assessment form must be filled in by the clinician.
However, the decision will be reassessed if the patient informs the staff treating them that their return date has been postponed for valid reasons or if their medical condition unexpectedly changes.
Pharmacy
Overseas visitors are not entitled to receive an NHS-subsidised prescription, they must pay the same charge for a private prescription upfront prior to dispensing.