UTAR PBB Debit Card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Read first hand the NAO’s report on recovering the cost of NHS treatment for overseas patients. Alarmingly, the report concludes that the amount recovered has increased but NHS hospital trusts remain some way from complying in full with the requirement to recover the cost of treating overseas visitors.

Source: Recovering the cost of NHS treatment for overseas patients – National Audit Office

My wife and I have travelled extensively and from time to time require medical care in foreign countries – without exception, we must produce pre-screened credit or debit cards to cover payment BEFORE we are able to see a doctor.

Sadly, the NHS is full of so many broken processes that it cannot collect effectively debts from foreign patients. If the NHS were outsourced, you could be sure that this lapse would be immediately reversed.

Let me ask an open question:

Do you think that the NHS will ever be able to offer proper value for money, focusing on front-line services and largely elimination bureaucracy? If not, is that a viable alternative?

Thoughts?