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What A Lawyer has To say about Surgery Abroad for NHS patients
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| | In the summer of 2001 the European Court decided that EU citizens who cannot get timely or appropriate treatment in their home countries would be entiteld to such treatment in other EU member states at the expense of their own insurance institutions. |
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| | Now a UK court has decided for the first time that patients faced with long NHS waiting lists are entitled to timely treatmetn abroad. Read what the patients lawyers (LEIGH DAY Solicitors) have to say about it: |
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| | "High Court hip ruling has implications for NHS
1st October 2003 |
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| | The High Court has ruled that patients on NHS waiting lists facing 'undue delay' should be offered the choice of having their medical treatment abroad. |
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| | Although the case of the 72 year old grandmother, Yvonne Watts, failed on a technicality, the principle that patients who need urgent treatment should be able to have their treatment in other European Union countries was confirmed. |
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| | The judgment of the Hon Mr. Justice Munby stated that that the length of time that constituted an �undue delay� depended on the medical assessment of the patient and in the case of Mrs. Watts this was �very much less than a year� but more than three or four months. |
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| | This ruling has far reaching implications for the NHS and the government�s waiting list policy. Richard Stein, partner at Leigh Day & Co. who represents Mrs. Watts said: �This judgment is a very good one for patients who will now be able to choose to have urgent treatment earlier by going abroad rather than waiting, often in considerable pain, on an NHS list. It will also benefit other patients on the waiting list who do not go abroad. |
| | �It shows that waiting lists are an unfair restriction on a patient�s access to treatment. NHS waiting times in the UK will have to be drastically reduced.� |
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| | In October 2002, Bedford Primary Care Trust told Mrs. Watts that she would have to wait over a year for a hip operation even though she was in constant pain and had to use a wheelchair. |
| | In January this year she took the NHS Trust to court claiming that they should pay for her to have the operation in Lille because it would allow her to be treated sooner. Her lawyer, Richard Stein, argued that the Trust was misinterpreting the rules on treating patients overseas and that they should take into account her clinical need. |
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| | In February the hospital reassessed her and decided that she could have her operation in April or May, still a two to three month delay. However she had already booked to have the operation in France in March and because of the pain she was in, decided to go ahead with it. |
| | The judge said that the revised wait of two to three months was not long enough to warrant her going abroad to have her operation. |
| | Richard Stein added: �Although Yvonne Watts� claim has failed on a technical point, she is delighted that others facing the same pain and wait will now have more choice for earlier treatment�." |
| | (text taken from the website of Leigh, Day & Co, Priory House, 25 St. John's Lane, London, EC1M 4LB, Tel:(020) 7650 1200, Fax:(020) 7253 4433, Email: postbox@leighday.co.uk) |
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