A motion put forward by a number of GPs at this year’s LMC conference insisting that practices should be able to charge overseas patients on a private basis has been backed, despite a heated debate around the topic.
“If a GP is seeing a foreign patient then it is taking time away from NHS patients. If people are not eligible for NHS care then it needs to be funded,” said Eastbourne GP Dr Russell Brown.
“This motion is not about denying access to care, it is about proper resources – and we are not funded for this,” he added.
However, a number of delegates spoke up against the motion, with one questioning whether ‘overseas’ patients would mean ‘foreign’ patients from within the EU or just those from outside the EU.
Dr Greg Place from Nottinghamshire LMC said: “We are NHS doctors and we should be providing care free at the point of delivery.
“Let someone else work out how to pay for it, but we should be treating our patients.
“What about vulnerable and those unable to pay? Would we start sending them away at the desk? Of course we wouldn’t.”
Evidently, the motion was a point of contention at the conference – which eventually concluded with a narrow win in support of charging overseas patients on a private-fee basis, with fees to be retained by practices.
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