Good news for travellers, UK chemists can now diagnose and treat more illnesses and injuries than before. Inexpensive emergency services and clinics are available too.
To relieve the heavily burdened National Health System (NHS), the UK's "Chemists who Care" program, or 'scheme', now authorizes pharmacists to diagnose and prescribe for twenty-seven common mishaps and maladies ranging from hay fever, sprains, lice, and diarrhoea to vaginal thrush, excessive ear wax, and thread worms.
Once you've been diagnosed, whether you're a UK citizen or a visitor, prescriptions at the pharmacy cost 6 pounds and 85 pence. "Whether the medication costs 2 pounds or 2,000 pounds," said the local Lloyd's pharmacist in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool, "it's 6 pounds 85. It keeps going up, but it works pretty well. Although sometimes you might only need four pills and it ends up costing you." then with a laugh, "Sorry about that."
Emergency Treatment for Travellers
In an emergency, whether you're a UK citizen or a visitor, any hospital will diagnose and treat you for no charge (explaining that tracking down foreign insurance payments costs more than the treatment is worth, a 5 minute diagnosis is free).
Health Phone Numbers
If you are admitted to hospital, though, insurance is necessary or payment must be made in cash, check, or charge. There are long-term payment plans. The emergency room is called "Accident and Emergency" or "A&E". The emergency telephone number (for ambulance, police, or fire) is 999. Waits are not unduly long - 2 hours on a Wednesday morning. An A&E doctor at a busy city centre Manchester hospital, said he saw 30 people per hour.
If you aren't sure whether you have a health emergency, call NHS DIRECT at 0845 4647 anywhere in the UK for advice from a qualified nurse. Waits on those phone lines are often long. If you have a phone book, a general practitioner's office will advise you.
Just Moved to the UK? Health Care Costs and What to Expect
If you're settling into the UK for a longer stretch, you'll need regular check-ups. But visitors to the UK do not typically qualify for free NHS care. Instead, general practitioners, opticians, and dentists provide a menu of services and their 'private', that is, 'not NHS', prices. Twenty-five pounds seems to be the going rate for basic private services. Dentist are more expensive. Dental check-ups start around 50 pounds. With dollar-to-pound conversion rates of 2-to-1, those with dollars are compelled to floss.
Health Care Prices, Wait-Times, Service: Reasonable
In Liverpool, a routine, 15-minute medical check-up costs around 25 pounds, five pounds for every 15 minutes over that. An eye exam costs 22 pounds, but a thorough and lengthy contact lens appointment cost nothing until the patient has tested the prescribed pair for a week. After that, about 25 pounds covers the previous appointment as well as the fitting appointment.
Glasses and contact lens prescriptions can be filled through grocery store pharmacies like ASDA, Tesco, and Sainsbury's for less than an optician's. The pharmacist at the Tesco recommended ASDA as the least expensive.
NHS inadequacy and night-mare stories of bureaucratic ineptitude, hapless neglect, and tragedy are reported, but, overall, service availability, access to hospitals and walk-in clinics, value for money, and promptness seem good.
Whether you are a traveller stumbling off a train, staggering to a random pharmacist's, or settling in and visiting the surgery or an A&E in your newly adopted neighborhood for the first time, health care specialists in the UK seem overwhelmingly helpful, candid, dedicated to making sure no one goes without affordable health services.
