Health rip-off

It is disappointing to find that primary care general practitioners

in Edinburgh appear to have a business model that has them charging visitors from Australia – and presumably other non-eu visitors – over £100 for a “private” appointment. This despite the fact that there is an agreement between the Australian, UK and Scottish governments for the provision of free primary and other health care.

As a temporary resident, I

took the trouble to contact NHS Inform about this matter and their advice on the one hand was that my treatment should indeed be free under the government to government agreement, and on the other hand that there was an Edinburgh reality by which, as a consequence of the number of visitors participating at this time of year, the opportunity was being taken to make some extra money via the private patient route. In contrast, on a visit to Scotland last year I was provided with free primary health care at the excellent Dumbarton medical centre.

This is all particularly galling as one of the features of Scotland and the UK that we enthuse about to friends in Australia and elsewhere is the free primary healthcare central to the NHS since its foundation 70 years ago. So here I am, a “private” patient in Scotland. It makes me sick.

STEWART SWEENEY

Royal Circus, Edinburgh