§ Mr. Bernie GrantTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Tottenham,Official Report, 30 November, which countries have arrangements which enable them to refer patients for free treatment in the United Kingdom under the National Health Service; what these arrangements are; and why these arrangements do not apply to British dependencies in the Caribbean.
§ Mr. MellorThere are bilateral health agreements between the United Kingdom and 25 other signatories. Generally these provide only for immediately necessary treatment for conditions arising during the course of a visit. However, seven of these agreements allow for patients to be referred to the United Kingdom specifically for treatment free of charge. The grounds for allowing this vary
for the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Malta and Gibraltar, the referral provision aims to achieve a balance of costs of providing health care to visitors on each side; similar considerations apply in the agreement with Yugoslavia;88Wfor the USSR, the provision is to enable patients from both countries to benefit from certain highly specialised care;for the Falkland Islands, the provision was made to take account of the particular difficulties faced by the islanders in obtaining specialist care following the conflict with Argentina.We are not aware of similar considerations applying in the case of residents of the British territories in the Caribbean.