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Ukrainian Refugees Go Back to Ukraine for Medical Treatment to Avoid NHS

by Will Jones
11 March 2023 9:00 AM

When Maria Chaplia contracted a nasty skin infection last year, she quickly learned the NHS was going to make her wait months for treatment. So she hopped on a flight back to her native Ukraine, where she was immediately treated in a health care system that is much better than the creaking NHS, she writes in the Telegraph.

After countless futile attempts to get through to the NHS to be seen by a dermatologist, I was told that it would be months before I would be given an appointment.

So far, so familiar, you might think. But if you have read and struggled to believe stories about Ukrainians living in the UK returning to their native country for medical treatment, let me tell you that I am one of them. Having given up on the NHS, I flew to Poland and crossed the border. Later that day, amid air raid sirens, I visited a hospital. By the evening, I had the relevant medicines to get me back on the mend.

After living in the U.K. for over two years, I can see that Ukrainians are spoiled in terms of access to healthcare compared to Britons, despite the billions that are lavished on the NHS. Growing up in a small town in western Ukraine – to which it is still possible to return despite the fighting in the east – I never had to wait more than two days to be seen by a specialist doctor.

When you fall unwell in Ukraine, you are usually advised to get seen by a doctor right away. Within a day or two, you have different tests done, such as a lung X-ray and blood sampling, and then you are prescribed treatment. The doctor would usually give you their phone number so that you can text or call them to discuss your progress. Following recovery, the doctor would normally recommend having blood tests again to make sure that the illness is completely gone. On the NHS, by contrast, ibuprofen seems to be the panacea to all of life’s ills.

For those with a bit more disposable income, the private sector offers even more choice.

Ukraine has an extensive network of private hospitals and clinics where you could get a walk-in MRI or X-ray scan for £80 at most. Many of those clinics have handy mobile apps, which allow you to choose a specialist doctor and book an appointment on the go.

In May last year, I paid £5 for a private dermatologist appointment, during which a nurse took a sample of my rash to establish the cause of the problem (I had the results back in half an hour). On average, the price of a private doctor’s appointment in Ukraine varies between £10 and £40. Given that monthly average salaries are still comparatively low, not many Ukrainians can afford to go private. However, it definitely helps that the choice is there, and the options are many.

When planning a trip back home from the U.K., I’ve noticed that Ukrainians will often try to see as many doctors as possible. A few months ago, I met another Ukrainian woman who lived in London and was travelling back to get checked by Ukrainian doctors. Having suffered from severe stomach pain for weeks on end, she didn’t want to take her chances with long NHS waiting lists.

A quick search through Facebook groups shows that Ukrainians can be frightened about getting sick in the U.K. for fear of not being able to receive treatment.

Envy of the world.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: NHSNHS BacklogNHS CrisisRefugeesUkraineWar in Ukraine

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26 Comments
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Dinger64
Dinger64
2 years ago

We moved to ireland to avoid the NHS!!

29
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago
Reply to  Dinger64

Doesn’t it cost you a minimal fee for the consultation?
My son had an Irish girlfriend some years ago and had a contact lens disappear round the back of her eyeball.
She told us she didn’t want to go to A+E because she couldn’t afford the 30 Euros (at the time) for treatment. She was greatly relieved to find that it wouldn’t cost her here.

8
0
acle
acle
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

Yes, it’s ‘free’ for around a third of the population, the rest have to pay. Specialist healthcare provision outside of Dublin is also pretty poor. And that A&E trip now costs €100!

The NHS needs to be put to sleep, but once you’ve sold something as being ‘free’ how do you convince people to pay? I’ve turned into a proper grumpy old man and anytime someone refers to a service as ‘free’ I tell them it’s not free and someone’s taxes are paying for it.

41
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
2 years ago
Reply to  acle

Yes that is true but I have a medical card and haven’t had to pay anything yet.
The service down here in the southwest is second to none and we can get an appointment to see the doctor the next day usually, so, it’s not perfect but it’s certainly better than when we where in the uk.

7
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Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
2 years ago
Reply to  Dinger64

It varies tremendously in the UK.

When I lived in Leicester I ended up in hospital for a few days getting IV antibiotics because it took so long to see my GP.

Although I now live in Northamptonshire my GP is in Rutland and I could always get same-day appointments.

I haven’t needed to see him since the scamdemic started but I did once need a prescription for pills to treat gout and the delay between my email and the pharmacist calling me was only 3 hours and I was able to drive there after the conversation and collect the prescription.

7
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

From getting through on the ‘phone to possibly being given an appointment to see one of the gods – four weeks at our surgery.

14
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
2 years ago

Ever human being has to eat and crap every day! Thats how you know what the real population is!
Its no good doing a head count if many people keep their heads down.
As with the NHS and all infrastructure, if you lie to yourself about how many people are using the facilities you’ll never have enough to go round!

Last edited 2 years ago by Dinger64
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Mogwai
Mogwai
2 years ago

Is it just me or is Jeremy Hunt talking out of his arse here?

“Looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, and it is with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that we over focused on preparing for pandemic flu and not for the type of virus that we actually ended up with, which was a coronavirus flu virus.
“I think Sweden and the UK, we used the law, Sweden used a voluntary approach, but we had broadly fairly similar levels of compliance with the lockdowns.
“In retrospect, I think there’s a lot to learn from what Sweden did, but I don’t think there was such a huge difference.” And; ”Hunt admitted that the Government had prepared for a flu and not a virus, explaining that the way the two spread is different.” Huh?? Bizarre..

So the original pandemic preparedness plan for flu was to be chucked out because a different type of ”flu” is what the world ended up with and the UK police went round arresting people for having picnics/walking in the middle of nowhere or sitting on a bench therefore ”we had broadly fairly similar levels of compliance with the lockdowns” when compared with Sweden…Is this shyster trying to re-write the facts of what happened whilst simultaneously treating everyone like they have sh*t for brains?

https://www.gbnews.com/news/jeremy-hunt-says-uk-has-lots-to-learn-from-sweden-covid-response-pandemic

Last edited 2 years ago by Mogwai
91
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amanuensis
amanuensis
2 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

We’d have been perfectly fine if they’d used the existing plan for pandemic flu.

We’d also have been fine if we’d simply ‘locked down’ all the vulnerable for the few months of that first covid wave, and then let everyone get on with life.

61
-4
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  amanuensis

“and then let everyone get on with life.”

Of course we could and should have done nothing as would be normal for a touch of ‘flu.

There was no “pandemic.”

83
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  amanuensis

“We’d also have been fine if we’d simply ‘locked down’ all the vulnerable for the few months of that first covid wave, and then let everyone get on with life.”

Hopefully you don’t mean this in the way I’ve read it. “Locking down” anyone for a mild-for-most respiratory virus of the type we’ve lived with since the dawn of time is immoral, unethical and futile. EVERYONE should have been able to “get on with life” from Day 1. Anyone who was likely to be more susceptible based on the available data (and their loved ones) should have been given the relevant, accurate information, calmly, and left to make their own choices. You could possibly make some arguments around infection control in care homes and hospitals, and for me this is where it gets a bit tricky because you have to balance conflicting interests – some may have been happy to take their chances with visitors so as not to spend the last months/years of their life lonely and miserable, others may have made a different choice. With limited resources it may be difficult to cater for everyone, but forcing people into putting their lives on hold indefinitely is wrong.

64
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Yep, agreed. Even the Swedes admit they could have done better at protecting their elderly, frail population but then that brings me to my Captain Obvious question; what would Sweden, or any other country come to that, have done in terms of care for the elderly during any previous particularly bad flu season? Because wouldn’t you just do the same? I never worked exclusively with elderly or in the community so perhaps others can shed some light here but I’ve never ever known masks to be worn outside of an operating theatre ( obv nothing to do with viruses there ) and I’ve never heard of old folk being deprived of visits or treat like prisoners in residential care/nursing homes. My point is that nothing should have been done differently to previous years but I genuinely don’t know what goes on in these institutions that care for the vulnerable during a typical flu season. Honestly, prior to 2020 I’d only ever heard the term ”lock down” in the context of prisons or sci-fi movies.

27
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Both my parents were in care homes and frail before they died, and both died of something respiratory – or they died of old age, depending on your point of view. I suppose I may have avoided seeing them if I was down with a bad cold or flu, but at that stage time is limited so I would not have wanted to avoid them for months on end. Life involves risk, everything is a tradeoff. No-one in the care homes wore masks. Possibly if the staff were very ill they would have stayed away but it’s not something I ever thought about.

30
0
BurlingtonBertie
BurlingtonBertie
2 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

“Is it just me or is Jeremy Hunt speaking out of his arse here?”

It’s his default mode of function 🙂

47
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  BurlingtonBertie

😀 😀 😀

10
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
2 years ago

‘A quick search through Facebook groups shows that Ukrainians just about everyone who can’t afford private health care can be frightened about getting sick in the U.K. for fear of not being able to receive treatment.’

There, fixed it for you.

69
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago
Reply to  WyrdWoman

You might be irritated to know that private health care in Russia is tax-deductible.

30
-1
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

😖

2
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago

I have to question the status of “refugee” since the author was able to fly back and see, presumably, her family doctor.
Her home is clearly many miles from any action.

98
-2
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

“Her home is clearly many miles from any action.”

Would that be her Ukrainian home or her English home?

Isn’t it nice to have options?

51
-3
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Both are many miles from the action.

33
-1
Simon Platt
Simon Platt
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

She’s not a war refugee. She’s been here since at least a year before the current war began in earnest.

10
0
stewart
stewart
2 years ago

Sounds like an option for reducing waiting lists.

Maybe the NHS can fund flights to the Ukraine full of British patients. What’s the bet it’s cheaper than treating them through the NHS?

66
0
ebygum
ebygum
2 years ago

Hmmm…maybe I’ve been on this site for so long I now see conspiracy everywhere?! LOL!
But I imagine this article will have made a lot of people very angry….either because it sounds dreadfully ‘ungrateful’, or because many will be annoyed that they have no facility to do the same thing as a ‘refugee’…
…….along with what could be seen as the US attempt to throw Ukraine under the bus with the fake Nordstream story…I can’t help thinking this has been published as another little nudge to change people’s minds…..?

29
0
Simon Platt
Simon Platt
2 years ago
Reply to  ebygum

She says she’s been here for at least two years. She’s not here as a refugee.

4
-1
porgycorgy
porgycorgy
2 years ago

The same in Russia, of course, with nearly everything being affordable and immediate. They get on with full diagnosis and then treatment very promptly. It is advisable to give extra personal care to your relatives if they are in hospital, however – just as in the UK in fact!
I have never been a fan of the NHS ‘Gatekeeper GP’ system – I think it stinks.

Last edited 2 years ago by porgycorgy
9
0

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