85 year old grandfather visiting the UK - health?

hi all,

I am in the process of getting ready to apply for my 85 year old grandfather to come and visit me in the UK.

I was curious as to if he would be covered by NHS (via me) because of his age. If not - I guess I would need to arrange adequate private health insurance. Does anyone know of a Health Insurer for visitors.

Thanks in advance.

It is essential that he gets travel insurance .... if he can ..... but as you will appreciate at his age such travel insurance might be difficult to acquire or be expensive.

NHS treatment for him? Very limited, and illustrated by the following .... and clearly I don't wish this on your grandfather! Say a visitor to the UK collapses in the street ..... an ambulance is called and he is treated by the paramedics .... free .... he is taken to the local A&E department in that ambulance ... free ... he is treated in the A&E department ... free ... and then transferred to a ward and/or theatre ... not free!

In other words, just when it starts to get very expensive the need to pay kicks in. Accordingly travel insurance including adequate medical cover is essential.

One of my friends dad had emergency treatment in NHS which were free on his visit visa.

timefactor wrote:One of my friends dad had emergency treatment in NHS which were free on his visit visa.

Emergencies (Life threatening) are treated for free by the NHS as explained earlier by John

Yes, I am not saying that they would not treat a visitor (please excuse the double negative) but I am saying that treatment in a theatre or ward is chargeable.

And increasingly NHS hospitals are investigating the right to free treatment rather than just making assumptions about the matter.

More details and policy can be found here:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Policyandguidan ... /DH_074374

Basically all treatment in A&E is but according to the policy emergency treatment by any other department except A&E is chargeable. Having said that, the policy leaves the implementation to individual PCTs and I have heard of people getting loads of free treatment as visitors.

thanks for the replies guys...

can anyone recommend any health insurers that do a short term cover for visitors. I don't believe there is any 'proper' travel insurance providers in Pakistan (well I have never heard of any).

also would it be possible to pay the NHS for any treatment he may require, if such a scenario arose, at the time - rather than paying for health insurance?

thanks.

qasim25 wrote: also would it be possible to pay the NHS for any treatment he may require, if such a scenario arose, at the time - rather than paying for health insurance?

Never take that risk unless you have got millions sitting idle in your accounts

has anyone used a health insurance provider for visitors in the past they can recommend?

:D :D :D

that's what exactly i meant mate!

[quote="olisun"]
Emergencies (Life threatening) are treated for free by the NHS [/quote]

qasim25 wrote:hi all,

I am in the process of getting ready to apply for my 85 year old grandfather to come and visit me in the UK.

I was curious as to if he would be covered by NHS (via me) because of his age. If not - I guess I would need to arrange adequate private health insurance. Does anyone know of a Health Insurer for visitors.

Thanks in advance.

There are reciprocal arrangements between the UK and some other non-European countries that will enable treatment to be rendered on the NHS in certain circumstances - which country is your father from?

But in any case, he still needs travel insurance. Consider this: what happens if his flight puts down unexpectedly somewhere and he needs medical attention while he in the interim place? More tellingly, what happens if the flight puts down unexpectedly somewhere because he is seriously unwell en route? In those sort of circumstances, travel health insurance is needed.

In addition, travel insurance would cover some unexpected expenses (such as hotel bills in the event of delays in some third country), so again I'd recommend travel insurance in any case.

You might have to look around a little to find insurance for him at his age, but there are companies that offer it.

got a quote from BUPA for my grandfather - £500 per month.

err... Thats a lot.. I thought it would be £100 per month max.

most other health care providers don't cover overseas visitors.

any advice would be really appreciated.

I have to say, given his age, I am surprised that you got even that quote.

But more importantly, what medical cover is included for that price?

I don't believe there is any 'proper' travel insurance providers in Pakistan (well I have never heard of any).

I find that difficult to believe. How do people from Pakistan travel at all cause one needs travel insurance as a mandatory requirement for traveling anywhere in the world. In India one can get insurance for 3 months for anything between INR 2000-5000 and that's what everyone takes when travelling abroad.

Mini wrote:In India one can get insurance for 3 months for anything between INR 2000-5000 and that's what everyone takes when travelling abroad.

You can upto 1yr insurance in India... My mom is in Australia now for 1yr and she took the 1yr insurance (From TATA I think)