[Polygoof]

My aunt is from an EU country like myself and resides in London just like myself.

She is registered with the NHS and often complains about their incompetence, most importantly the following fact:

According to some tests conducted by our home country's national healthcare, she has a very serious condition and needs to be treated on a regular basis.

However, NHS refused to give this treatment because they do not accept the medical evidence from a foreign country. Ultimately she had to repeat the tests here in London with NHS and the results conflicted with the results the home country, i.e. she is healthy according to the NHS.

She repeated the tests several times in the EU country and they confirm she does have the serious condition.

So she chose to fly back almost every week to get the therapy in our home country.

I was wondering whether anyone here might have some advice or alternative suggestions for her, given that I am sure there is something fishy about the NHS here...

[Logi]

You're going to have to give more details about the condition but from what you've said there doesn't seem anything fishy. The NHS has it's own guidelines and chooses which conditions to treat according to it's own tests. Why is that so shocking? And if she can afford to fly every week then why not just go private?

[Polygoof]

(Original post by Logi)
You're going to have to give more details about the condition

I can't go into details but it is some sort of cancer/tumor.

The NHS has it's own guidelines and chooses which conditions to treat according to it's own tests. Why is that so shocking?

Well, how is it possible that according to one country's healthcare system, she is severely affected by a possible cancer and has to be treated, whereas according to NHS she is "perfectly healthy"?
Does that mean the UK has lower health standards or something like that!?!

I also thought that health might be something slightly more objective than politics.

And if she can afford to fly every week then why not just go private?

I think it is a matter of trust rather than affording.

[Helenia]

Some European countries notoriously over-diagnose and over-treat certain conditions which are considered trivial in the UK - e.g. in many countries they still use antibiotics for colds. Without knowing more details about your relative's condition or what tests/treatment she has had, it is impossible to say who is right/wrong or anything even remotely useful about the case. The NHS is, in general, pretty good at cancer investigation/treatment - certainly much improved compared with 10-15 years ago. Our health standards are at least comparable if not better than most other European countries. So really, it's impossible to say what's going on as there's not enough information, though I appreciate you may not want to give out loads of personal details over the internet.