No, It’s Not “Foreigners Using the NHS”
It’s total nonsense, despite what you read online.
To be eligible for NHS treatment, you have to be ordinarily resident in the UK. Your entitlement doesn’t last forever once you leave. If you’ve been living abroad and you return, you are not automatically treated as a permanent UK resident for NHS purposes. Eligibility is tied to residence, not nationality.
When I was a PCT Chief Executive, we carried out an audit of so-called “foreigners” using NHS services. Around 90% of them were British nationals who had been living abroad and had lost their ordinary resident status. Many had been overseas for years but wanted to return for specialist treatment or to have children born in the UK.
The idea that the NHS is being drained primarily by non-Brits is comforting to some people, but it doesn’t survive contact with the data.
Since Brexit, it has become harder for Britons to live and work in the EU, and access to reciprocal healthcare arrangements has narrowed. For decades, Brits have complained about “health tourists” using the NHS — yet we have been among the most enthusiastic health tourists in Europe. Spend a Saturday night in A&E in Falaraki or Magaluf and you’ll see who really exports the problem.
One predictable consequence of Brexit was that more British nationals would lose long-term residence rights in EU countries and drift back to the UK. With that return comes renewed reliance on the NHS. That was always going to create additional demand.
It is hardly a coincidence that these movements are becoming more visible around the fifth anniversary of the end of the transition period, as temporary residency protections lapse and long-term arrangements settle.
And those 735,000 people you’ve seen cited?
I’m one of those “foreigners”.
Nothing the right says makes sense on immigration.
‘Men of military age’ coming here – bleeding the NHS, can’t get doctors appointment, hospitals full, can’t see a dentist. Except that very demograph are less likely to use the NHS and other medical services – young males.
I would love to see figures on how many Brits have had to return because of Brexit either on a full or part time basis. I would also like to see which Brits living abroad voted for Brexit and had their life flipped because of it, partly out of curiosity and partly because I could do with a good laugh. Theres actually video about it on youtube somewhere, but its hard to feel sorry for these people.
The Brexit transition date was 5 years ago last December. I was at Heathrow will huge numbers of other Brits desperately getting into the EU to claim temporary residency. Add to that the huge number of Brits already living abroad who had to do the same.
It was like the last chopper out of Saigon as people scrambled to keep the rights that Brexit had stolen from them.
Those 5 year temporary residency permits expired at the end of last year. I was lucky enough to be able to get my permmanent residency. The rush of people to register with a UK GP co-inciding with the 5th anniversary date is only a surprise to hard line Brexiters. Everyone else knew this was coming