§ 49. Mr. Hefferasked the Minister of Health what steps Her Majesty's Government is taking to negotiate reciprocal medical agreements with the Spanish Government.
§ Mr. LoughlinNone, Sir. Spain has not the kind of health service which could provide a basis for reciprocity.
§ Mr. HefferI accept my hon. Friend's remarks, but is he aware that many British visitors to Spain are being charged fantastically high medical fees and have been exploited? Is he aware that one of my constituents was forced to pay over £1,000 for something which in this country would have involved relatively negligible expense? Does he agree that something ought to be done, and, in the meantime—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. That is becoming too long. We will stop there.
§ Mr. LoughlinI have knowledge of and appreciate the great problem in the case referred to by my hon. Friend, but the difficulty we face is that "medical benefit" in Spain applies only to certain limited categories of people. I understand that a person has to earn less than £300 a year, be an old-age pensioner or be in receipt of accident insurance benefit. Obviously, it is a difficult problem to get the Spanish authorities to offer to British tourists a better health service than they offer to their own people.