UK patients pay £287k this year for treatment

HUNDREDS of UK visitors have been treated in Guernsey since the end of the reciprocal health agreement with the UK, paying the island hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Published Nov 17, 2010

TWO operations have been cancelled and the number of people with flu-like symptoms has more than doubled as Health and Social Services works to cope with an increase in sickness.

HUNDREDS of UK visitors have been treated in Guernsey since the end of the reciprocal health agreement with the UK, paying the island hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Health and Social Services figures show that so far this year, 358 UK residents have been treated at the Accident and Emergency Department at the PEH.

And 71 UK residents have been admitted to hospital as in-patients this year, with 11 having surgery.

That has netted the department £287,000 over the course of this year.

The reciprocal health agreement allowed islanders to be treated free on the NHS if they fell ill in the UK and vice versa. But the agreement was ended by the previous UK government at the end of March 2009.

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