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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat
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    British army veteran faces £27,000 NHS hospital bill

    Fiji-born man told he is not eligible for free treatment after brain tumour surgery

    A Commonwealth-born veteran, who served for more than a decade in the British army including tours of Afghanistan and Iraq, has been told he must pay more than £27,000 for NHS hospital bills after an emergency operation to remove a brain tumour.
    Hospital staff have classified Taitusi Ratucaucau, 49, as an overseas patient, and therefore ineligible for free NHS care. He joined the British army in 2001 and has been continuously in the UK since being discharged from the military in 2011, living here with his wife and three daughters, and paying tax and national insurance.
    Ratucaucau, originally from Fiji, is recovering in a London hospital after major brain surgery on 30 April. He is meant to be focusing on his physical rehabilitation but said he was spending most of his time worrying about how he would meet the demand for payment, given that he has no savings, is the main breadwinner for his family and is currently too unwell to work. The bill is increasing by around £1,500 for every day he remains an inpatient.
    British army veteran faces PS27,000 NHS hospital bill | UK news | The Guardian

  2. #2
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    Start crowd funding on GoFundMe?

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Ring Help for Heroes. They could do this with petty cash.

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    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Surely the British government will realise that they need to pay for this veterans bill.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Ring Help for Heroes. They could do this with petty cash.
    Indeed, or the Royal British legion.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Personally I think we're only hearing half the story in this case.

  7. #7
    The Fool on the Hill bowie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic View Post
    Personally I think we're only hearing half the story in this case.
    Yea, agreed.

    Possible that there is some small disqualifying factor not being published. If this is the case it will be easily rectified and the publicity will speed the resolution along.

    As far as the "just let the charities" foot the bill - PFFT, let the government fulfill its obligation to their military.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic View Post
    Personally I think we're only hearing half the story in this case.
    Whatever a "small disqualifying factor" is, it's a disgrace.

    There have been so many similar cases of their "slave" soldiers from the colonies who were proudly fighting for the British Crown, how they have been awarded?

  9. #9
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chittychangchang View Post
    Indeed, or the Royal British legion.
    Isn’t it pension schemes that are crippling the country?

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Apparently he forgot, or for reasons unknown, he failed to

    [QUOTE] apply for settlement in the UK on discharge and for failing to assist them with complex, expensive immigration rules, which has left them categorised as illegal immigrants, struggling to access free NHS treatment, facing unemployment and fearing forced removal.[/QUOTE

    Still something not right with this as he'll have been informed upon leaving service as to his rights to stay and work in the UK. It's part of process when leaving.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
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    Serving in the British Army is such a well paid job that it is not more than right for the Home office to claim back part of the sold by charging him and his family members £3000 each for the privilege of becoming a full British citizen, and what an absurd idea it is that paying full tax and national insurance should automatically give you the same rights at NHS as other Brits have.

  12. #12
    The Fool on the Hill bowie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic View Post
    as he'll have been informed upon leaving service as to his rights
    Prag - have run into it many, many times with USA Vets, discharge, service exit, is a many step process and lots of things fall through the cracks.

    In this case, and as per your earlier post, more to the story. Unusual, but not rare, that it made it to the news media. We, speaking for my VFW Post, cleared up dozens, if not hundreds, of misunderstandings, discrepancies, and, missed deadline, type of errors. Few, if any, out and out denials concerning a Veteran receiving healthcare. Sometimes though, the appeal process was needed.

    And, as with anything bureaucratic, the government, military, healthcare, etc. are a difficult and oft times overwhelmingly system to wade through.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic View Post
    Personally I think we're only hearing half the story in this case.
    Indeed, Prag, you are hearing only half the story.

    The fact is since May became Home Secretary the fees charged for settlement became extortionate and the process byzantine in its complexity, for both the ex-soldier and his family which more often than not joined him in the UK after enlistment.

    The MoD and the Forces themselves only ever paid lip service to the issues facing the CW soldier on his demob and mostly resolved to a brief statement that qualification for settlement for those who had completed at least four years of service was automatic on application, given a leaflet and then told to fuck off.

    Many assumed that that meant they were deemed to be settled persons with indefinite leave to remain, an assumption that arose not least because they had no help from the MoD in the application process. The thing is, when they discovered their error it was too late under May's regime of arbitrary sanctions and for many they had lost their jobs, their rental accommodation and driving licences when they were automatically deemed to be overstayers and lumped into the category of black 'Windrush' British from the Caribbean who were criminally denied their rights. The only way these ex-soldiers could regularise their stay would be to apply outside the rules for exceptional leave to remain which would cost a man and his family up to £5,000 a pop. That leave, if granted, would be for two years only, at the end of which he would have to make a further application which would be for another two years, a process that would have to be repeated three more times at the end of which he and his family could then apply for indefinite leave to remain. From end to end it would cost a man and his foreign family up to £20,000, an absurd sum for an ordinary Joe.

    That's the full story Prag.

    Contrast that with the French Legion Etranger who arrange for a Legionnaire's French passport to be issued to him on completion of his five years enlistment, a process that is gratis.

    The other half of the story Prag is that the British army is shit, the Tory government that permitted May to destroy the use of intelligence and discretion by her officers in the pursuit of her creation of the malevolent, mean-minded, callous and cruel environment for migrants since 2010, is shit, the Dept of Health that joined in with May's Nazi regime is shit, and this current group of Tory Orcs are shit.

    The truth is, the British are institutionally shit. Aceept it Prag.

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    The truth is, the British are institutionally shit. Aceept it Prag.
    Okay.

  15. #15
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    There is no other country on the planet that would treat lawful migrants in service of the country in such an appalling manner.

    As I said before, May's settlement rules were, and still remain, so draconian in their effect, so complex as to thwart reasonable qualification and so extortionately expensive that at any given time there are around 15,000 children separated from one parent or other because of them.

    But there is no real objection or public protest because the British are apathetic, xenophobic, quite stupid and pretty much ignorant of anything very much unless it is presented in some mawkish emotional bollocks redolent of a soap opera for the lumpen masses.

    Frankly, I relish this COVID recession and the Brexit denouement simply so that the rank and file Brit has his nose ground into some shit.

    Only then will they realise just how marginal their futile lives truly are and that they have been cruelly deceived by a government of total shite.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    There is no other country on the planet that would treat lawful migrants in service of the country in such an appalling manner.
    Try the US. Google is your friend.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Isn’t it pension schemes that are crippling the country?
    Not for much longer...if covid-19 has its way...

  18. #18
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    Lefty NHS admin staff deliberately and selectively interpreting rules designed to stop abuse of the system to score a poiitical point. If he was a Ugandan here for free treatment and nothing else they'd have rolled out the red carpet and paid his taxi home too (literally)

  19. #19
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    ^

    that.

    some admin nhs and civil service desk jockeys employing their box ticking and "computer says no" ethos with a degree of inflexibility that is all too common to the blinkered protected jobsworths that inhabit these roles.

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    Thailand Expat VocalNeal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chittychangchang View Post
    Indeed, or the Royal British legion.
    Or his old regiment?

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    There is no other country on the planet that would treat lawful migrants in service of the country in such an appalling manner.
    But they are very generous when relocating the whole island population to make the island free for their friends. Or did I get it wrong?

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    There is no other country on the planet that would treat lawful migrants in service of the country in such an appalling manner.
    Well he's not a lawful migrant is he, you fucking moron.

    Some little clerk with your level of education (a CSE grade 5 in woodwork) has a job of sticking forms with a tick on them in box A and the ones without in box B.

    There is no real human element here because they aren't required to judge each case on its merits but on a tick in a box.

    Now that it's been publicised his MP and the military will flex their muscles and sort the problem out.

    Added: Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer is now involved.

    Added: He's got 14 grand on Justgiving.

    Added: He's got 12 grand on Gofundme.

    Load of hot air over nothing. The minister will waive it and he can use the rest to pay the visa fees and redo the kitchen.

  23. #23
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    The establishment, such as it is, only responds to pressure from those who campaign for fairness and shame the guilty i.e sleazy politicians or the merely immoral and autistic such as May who I hope catches COVID and dies.

    You 'Arry are an oik, a Yaxley - Lennon acolyte and clearly incapable of understanding a policy beyond your own miserable experience derived from the Daily Mail and Britain First.

    In short, you are an arse.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    ^

    that.

    some admin nhs and civil service desk jockeys employing their box ticking and "computer says no" ethos with a degree of inflexibility that is all too common to the blinkered protected jobsworths that inhabit these roles.
    The Hunt initiatives of 2015, and successive statutory instruments, compel all Trusts to exercise a legal duty to ensure all those who are not qualified by lawful residence under the NHS legislation to receive free healthcare are charged for their treatment that is not deemed to be emergency aid.

    I am unaware of any provision within the legislation that excludes Ugandan nationals not resident in the UK from this regime.

    Incidentally, the charge to be levied should reflect the actual cost of the treatment plus a premium of 50%.

    All foreign nationals claiming free healthcare are required to produce their passport in order to assess any payment liability, and any British national, or indeed anyone previously resident in the UK, who may have qualified for free healthcare but who has since moved abroad, except on foreign service, will be charged as if they were foreign nationals not resident in the UK. The only other exceptions are those who are in receipt of a state pension allowance who served in the armed forces and spent at least 10 years as a resident in the UK.

    The reality, and not some half-arsed bigoted bit of xenophobic prejudice from frazzled farts with their arses welded to their bathchairs of bile.

    Incidentally, I forgot to mention that these Tory initiatives are implemented nationally and current analysis of the charging regime reveals the greater proportion of funds retrieved are from British citizens who moved abroad in their retirement after, in many cases, 40 years of NI contributions but who fell ill on a temporary return to their own country.

    Good old Tories, eh, but I guess someone has to pay for lost revenue from those hedge funds salted away in tax free havens.

    But what I find puzzling is just why the stupid, the dull-minded, the racist and the bigoted don't moan about this when they are railing against black people etc.

    Very odd.
    Last edited by Seekingasylum; 21-05-2020 at 12:33 AM.

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    The establishment, such as it is, only responds to pressure from those who campaign for fairness and shame the guilty i.e sleazy politicians or the merely immoral and autistic such as May who I hope catches COVID and dies.

    You 'Arry are an oik, a Yaxley - Lennon acolyte and clearly incapable of understanding a policy beyond your own miserable experience derived from the Daily Mail and Britain First.

    In short, you are an arse.
    I wouldn't knock arcane, bureaucratic systems staffed by mindless, brain-dead drones with the intellectual capacity of a fucking amoeba.

    It's how people like you find jobs.

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