Spot the important bit in this news story

[Guy Profumo]

1. Doctors attempt to charge woman for medical treatment

2. Woman goes into premature labour three months early

3. Woman's quadruplet dies in childbirth, and a second child dies a few days later

4. The BBC's headline.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38809530

[EIM]

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Dunno why you try and wind me up like this, Guy. It's ever so ageing. I used to be beautiful, now I'm merely handsomely jaded.

[WOM]

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I take your point. But the story itself isn't about Nigerian women or multiple births. It's about unpaid NHS bills for non-citizens.

[EIM]

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The tone of the article is wank, and they picked a wank example. And missed appointments cost the NHS £750m a year, but it's easier to go after the foreigners.

[Guy Profumo]

Spot the important bit in this news story

WOM wrote: I take your point. But the story itself isn't about Nigerian women or multiple births. It's about unpaid NHS bills for non-citizens.

What "unpaid bills"?

Medical treatment on the NHS in the UK is free of charge.

It is paid for by general taxation.

[N est à?]

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As the story comes alongside a Sun front page about this incident (which WOM wouldn't have known, I suppose), and ahead of it being featured on a bbc tv show tonight, it's pretty clearly part of a co-ordinated hate campaign.

[WOM]

Spot the important bit in this news story

Guy Profumo wrote:

I take your point. But the story itself isn't about Nigerian women or multiple births. It's about unpaid NHS bills for non-citizens.

What "unpaid bills"?
Medical treatment on the NHS in the UK is free of charge.
It is paid for by general taxation.

You actually read the article, no? It says that A&E is free to all, but once you're admitted (to rooms/long stay) then non-citizens are charged for the stay.

[Anorak Smith]

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I caught a clip of this earlier, possibly on the news, where Pricilla (the Nigerian woman) is in her hospital bed, with some chap 'advising' her that her bill is now into 6 figures. I had a hope that this chap was the end of a long line of people who'd said 'No, fuck off, I'm not doing that', and perhaps he'd just been water-boarded or his family were being held captive.

It was also not clear if this is before or after the death of two of her children, but , really, in this race to the bottom, we've either almost made it or we bumbling around trying to find the finishing line.

Not sure whether to watch later or not, perhaps there will be a happy ending, but I doubt it.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Spot the important bit in this news story

WOM wrote:

I take your point. But the story itself isn't about Nigerian women or multiple births. It's about unpaid NHS bills for non-citizens.

What "unpaid bills"?
Medical treatment on the NHS in the UK is free of charge.
It is paid for by general taxation.

You actually read the article, no? It says that A&E is free to all, but once you're admitted (to rooms/long stay) then non-citizens are charged for the stay.

I think that the procedure if you're an EU citizen on holiday, or travelling and you wind up in hospital, the local health system will take care of you, and send the bill to your govt. there is a centralized arrangement for this sort of thing thanks to the EU. I'm not sure that the NHS is particularly confident of recovering the money from the Nigerian Govt.

I just can't get over how that story is presented though. It's sickening. If you're going to be a cunt about people using your health system, at least have the good sense not to include a story about premature birth, and and infant death, because then it reveals to the reader that you are some kind of sociopath.

[Various Artist]

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Seconded. Well fucking said Berba, the whole tone of that piece is disgusting.

[Antepli Ejderha]

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What have we come to as a society that this is deemed news worthy in the way this has been presented?

This poor woman is not a health tourist or exploiting the system, she's a mother who has tragically lost two of her children.

Where is our compassion? Where is our humanity? Where is our sense of morality in reporting this?

[Anorak Smith]

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Terry and his card machine, invoicing babies.

[seand]

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It's really quite breathtaking. It reads like a satirical fake Daily Mail article. You wouldn't expect much from the BBC these days, but surely outdoing the Sun/Mail is quite something.

The only silver lining is she did get admitted and treated, so kudos to the hospital for that.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

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This programme was just on. it's really nothing like the article. it's just a long series of people who are on holidays or visiting a relative. and they wind up in hospital, and there's this guy who has to at least ask them if they can pay for the treatment. He Himself is rather pleasant, and if someone has to do this job, at least I would like it to be him. He's not exactly a phil mitchell type.

I don't think he ever really expects to get paid. And I don't think anyone ever feels as though he's putting that much pressure on them. he basically says about the nigerian woman with the quadruplets, that "for a woman in her situation £10,000 or £200,000 it wouldn't make a difference, but we're obliged to ask."

The amounts of money involved are relatively small. it's 0.5% of the NHS Budget, and they get a chunk of it back. The thing is that I would challenge anyone to watch the documentary and think that the UK needs to crack down on these people. the scene where priscilla goes in to visit the babies is really lovely. when asked about her bill she points out that she could work all her life and never have this money. she then said she asked the consultants if they could afford to pay £2,000 a day for a baby in intensive care and they said they couldn't. so if consultants could afford it, how could she? which was a good point, well made I thought.

the hospital in question spent £4 million on foreign patients, and they got back £1.6 million. I would assume that it all came from people who had health insurance. and just in case you missed the point of the programme it finished with a screen telling you that one of the little babies died.