The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2017

“1A Where the condition specified in paragraph (2) is met, before providing a relevant service in respect of an overseas visitor, a relevant body must secure payment for the estimated amount of charges to be made under paragraph (1) for that relevant service unless doing so would prevent or delay the provision of—

1B The person from whom payment is to be secured under paragraph (1A) in respect of a relevant service is the person who it appears to the relevant body, at the time that the request for that payment is made, will be the person to whom a charge will be made under paragraph (1) in respect of that relevant service at the time that it is provided.”.

“3 Where more than one relevant body is to provide relevant services to an overseas visitor, each relevant body must secure the advance payment sum in respect of each relevant service that it is to provide.

3A Where more than one relevant body provides relevant services to an overseas visitor, each relevant body must make and recover the actual charge in respect of each relevant service that it provides.

4 A relevant body that makes and recovers a charge in accordance with paragraph (1) or secures payment in accordance with paragraph (1A) must give or send to the person making the payment a receipt for the amount paid.

4A In making and recovering an actual charge from a person in respect of a relevant service, a relevant body must—

“7 In this regulation—

“actual charge” means a charge to be made under paragraph (1);

“advance payment sum” means a sum to be secured under paragraph (1A);

“immediately necessary service” means—

(a) antenatal services provided in respect of a person who is pregnant;

(b) intrapartum and postnatal services provided in respect of—

(i) a person who is pregnant;

(ii) a person who has recently given birth; or

(iii) a baby; and

(c) any other relevant service that the treating clinician determines the recipient needs promptly—

(i) to save the recipient’s life;

(ii) to prevent a condition becoming immediately life-threatening; or

(iii) to prevent permanent serious damage to the recipient from occurring;

“urgent service” means a service that the treating clinician determines is not an immediately necessary service but which should not wait until the recipient can be reasonably expected to leave the United Kingdom.”.

“Obligation to record information against an overseas visitor’s consistent identifier

3A.—(1) An NHS foundation trust or an NHS trust that, in meeting its obligations under regulation 3, determines that a person is an overseas visitor must, as soon as it is practicable to do so, record against the overseas visitor’s consistent identifier—

(a)

(a) the fact that the person has been determined to be an overseas visitor;

(b)

(b) the date on which that determination was made; and

(c)

(c) whether Part 4 (overseas visitors exempt from charges) provides for no charge to be made.

(2) In this regulation, “consistent identifier” means a consistent identifier specified in regulation 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Consistent Identifier) Regulations 2015⁵.”.

“4A Where, due to a change in circumstances occurring during the period in which a relevant service is provided, more than one person is liable under paragraphs (1) to (4) to pay charges under these Regulations in respect of that relevant service, each such person is liable to pay charges only in respect of relevant services provided during the period during which those paragraphs apply to that person.”.

“Repayment of a sum recovered or secured by a relevant body

5.—(1) A claim to a relevant body for repayment of a sum—

(a)

(a) recovered in respect of charges made; or

(b)

(b) secured in respect of an estimated amount of charges to be made,

under these Regulations may be made by the person who paid the sum to the relevant body (“the claimant”).

(2) When making a claim under paragraph (1), the claimant must provide to the relevant body—

(a)

(a) the receipt for payment of the sum or other evidence of the claimant’s having paid the sum;

(b)

(b) a declaration in support of the claim signed by or on behalf of the claimant; and

(c)

(c) such other evidence in support of the declaration as the relevant body may require.

(3) Where a claimant makes a claim under paragraph (1) and the relevant body is satisfied that any sum was paid to it by the claimant in respect of—

(a)

(a) a charge that should not have been made and recovered under these Regulations;

(b)

(b) a relevant service that was not, or will not in the reasonably foreseeable future be, provided by the relevant body;

(c)

(c) an advance payment sum, which was paid by or on behalf of a person who is not liable to pay an actual charge in respect of the relevant service to which the advance payment sum relates; or

(d)

(d) a charge that should not have been recovered as a consequence of regulation 6A(2)(b) (provision relating to victims of female genital mutilation and supported individuals),

the relevant body must repay that sum...