Health Systems: Research & Counselling

Elderly Britons face large repatriation bills when travelling abroad

The UK Foreign Office has found that many elderly Britons travelling to other countries have to endure costly treatment and extortionate repatriation bills when they fall ill. The report, which is entitled ’British Behaviour Abroad’, includes cases from the twelve month period April 2009 to March 2010. The Association of British Insurers stated that the final medical bills for such patients amounted to around £274 million for 2009.

A total of 5,930 deaths were reported for British citizens abroad, which included accidental deaths, natural causes and unlawful killings. The report found that most Britons required diplomatic assistance in Spain, with the highest proportion of British visitors requiring help in Asian countries such as Thailand and Pakistan. The Foreign Office also found that 944 Britons had been arrested in regards to drug-related offences, which accounted for roughly 14 percent of the total number of arrests for British nationals across the globe.

The Association of British Insurers stated that as much as £5.3 million worth of medical insurance claims was being paid every week to Britons that were in need of emergency health care treatment by professionals working other countries locum doctor jobs. Last year around 366,000 claims for medical treatment were sent to the company, which amounts to over 7000 a week. All in all, medical insurance claims comprised 60% of all claims paid for by the travel insurance companies.

Jeremy Browne, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister said that the new report helps to shed light on the large number of UK citizens who fall into difficulty when they are travelling abroad. He said that many of these situations could be prevented and that while the government would do its best to support Britons facing trouble abroad. However, Browne said there was nothing the British government could do for Britons who were imprisoned for breaking the laws of the land or those who were facing hefty hospital bills because they did not seek the appropriate medical coverage.