Brussels offers NHS patients EU-wide treatment

Patients in the UK will be able to demand NHS-funded treatment anywhere in the EU without the prior approval of a doctor under wide-ranging proposals to guarantee health rights announced yesterday, reports the Times.

Under the EU scheme, patients would be able to beat NHS queues or avoid problems such as high superbug rates by shopping around for care abroad. They would then be eligible to recoup the NHS cost of the procedure.

The plan allows any EU citizen to travel to another member state without prior authorisation from a consultant, consolidating rights granted in a series of cases taken to the European court of justice.

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