Using NHS and comprehensive sickness insurance

Hi,

I am an EU citizen married to a non EU student. My wife got her residence card about two and a half years ago. I came to the UK to do a PhD. I have a scholarship from the university, which pays tuition, a stipend, and conditional on me working as a teacher assistant provides a small salary on top of the stipend. We have had comprehensive sickness insurance since the start. If I need to see the GP I just go to the university's medical centre. In such a case there is no need to use the private insurance.

A few weeks ago I got quite ill and the GP recommended I go see a specialist in order to get a colonoscopy. The GP approved an appointment with a private hospital that works with the NHS. I brought in my private insurance certificate and insisted I wanted to do this through my private insurance and the doctor was puzzled: as a university student I am not supposed to pay for medical care. He insisted that is how things work and that there was nothing he could do in order to charge the private insurer. A week later I got a letter saying that I have an appointment with the specialist and that this is covered by the NHS.

This is were my main question comes in:

Should I go to my appointment? I don't want to get in trouble with immigration and want to do the right thing. It makes no sense to get private insurance and not use it. But my GP, provided by the university insists that I am covered through the NHS and that he cannot take my private insurance card.

Even non EU students just pay the surcharge before coming to the UK and then are entitled to the NHS. Other EU friends have gone through GP referrals and have not payed before. I have asked solicitors, GPs and the Home Office and I get confusing answers. The HO just said "continue paying your CSI" but would not answer my question: can I still use the NHS? Some solicitors have said yes, others have said no, supposedly the border agency will see I used the NHS when my wife renews her residence card and will be in trouble.

Finally, can I qualify as a worker given that I am also a teaching assistant? The annual salary is about 3000 pounds and even though it has no fixed hours it could be considered as a part time job. I have a work contract for this teaching and had to get a NI number and fill in a P45.

What should I do? Thank you for your help!

Confusedstudent wrote:...

Even non EU students just pay the surcharge before coming to the UK and then are entitled to the NHS. Other EU friends have gone through GP referrals and have not payed before. I have asked solicitors, GPs and the Home Office and I get confusing answers. The HO just said "continue paying your CSI" but would not answer my question: can I still use the NHS? Some solicitors have said yes, others have said no, supposedly the border agency will see I used the NHS when my wife renews her residence card and will be in trouble.

Finally, can I qualify as a worker given that I am also a teaching assistant? The annual salary is about 3000 pounds and even though it has no fixed hours it could be considered as a part time job. I have a work contract for this teaching and had to get a NI number and fill in a P45.

What should I do? Thank you for your help!

About access to & use of NHS see:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/healt ... om-abroad/

About how HO assesses whether someone is a 'worker', ref:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... s_v3_0.pdf
- see page 11+

Get well soon.

Private medical insurance works along with NHS and even without being registered with GP it can't be hired/bought. Moreover, in order to use private medical insurance policy the GP referral need. A lot of people are using NHS and at the moment ukba is not actively tracing that, therefore, if you keep on paying for your private medical insurance then more likely you will be fine. But if you are paying for your medical insurance then you must prefer to get treatment from them.