An Introduction to the National Health Care System in the United Kingdom

If you are moving abroad to live in the United Kingdom you will want to make sure you know how their health care system works in the event of an emergency or if you need to seek medical services or treatment in the UK. There is a national public health care system in the United Kingdom called the National Health Service, which is sometimes simply called the NHS. The National Health Service is the public health care provider of the country. A variety of services are available under the National Health Service such as hospital visits, family doctor visits, dental visits, specialist visits, eye doctor visits and much more.

The British National Health Service was the first organization of its kind to offer free universal health care to citizens of a country. However, not all of the services that are provided by the National Health Service are at no charge. In fact, unless patients are exempt they have to pay subsidized fixed costs for vision tests, prescription medication, dental treatment and eye glasses. The main services that are offered by the National Health Service free of charge are hospital services and treatment, consultations from doctors and ambulance services.

If you do need some type of special treatment or operation and opt to use the National Health Service as opposed to private health care you should be warned that there are rather lengthy waiting lists for treatment including urgent treatment. As a result the standard of the treatment is a bit less that for those that have private health insurance and seek private health care services and treatment.

If you are wondering if expatriates are eligible to receive services under the National Health Service the answer is that mostly likely they are. In order to get free or subsidized services from the National Health Service you must meet one of the following: have right of abode in the UK and currently live in the UK, have been a resident in the UK in the previous year, are a European Union citizen, are a student in a course of study longer than six months or have a British work permit.

Some countries have reciprocal agreements with the United Kingdom so that their citizens can get medical treatment in the UK and vice versa. Those countries are: Anguilla, Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Channel Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, St Helena, Switzerland, Turkey, the Caicos Islands and European Economic Area countries.