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NORTH EDITION roundtownnews.com
26 APR - 2 MAY 2013
Issue 706
Health matters STRICT RULES over accessing Spanish healthcare for British residents and visitors are being clearly explained in key question and answer sessions. by Jack Troughton
Lucky starts the road recovery
Torture victim gets puppy love
SHOCKED ANIMAL lovers are caring for an eight-week-old puppy they believe was deliberately tortured and abandoned. Guardia Civil officers took the badly injured dog to the El Vergel shelter of charity SCAN – the Society for the Care of Animals in Need – on Monday after finding the puppy. Volunteers have named her Lucky and the youngster is responding to treatment. It was found she had been burned to the face and eyes and had suffered a broken leg. Read the full story on page 6.
THE NEW European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) Outreach Campaign is a unique partnership between the Department of Health team based at the British Consulate in Alicante and Spanish Colleagues at the Valencia Health authority. And the campaign is aimed at outlining the correct use of EHIC for visitors – while encouraging those who live mainly in Spain to register for healthcare in other ways to insure they are fully protected. The campaign, which is partly funded with EU cash, rolled into Javea on Tuesday where a third of the population is British – with 9,000 Brits registered with the town hall and an estimate 10,000 more resident in the town but yet to sign the Padron. Martyn Standing, of the Department of Health team, said the phenomenon of “people who live here but don’t live here” was repeated across Spain. And he said of EHIC. “We have ‘swallows’, people who spend part of the year here quite legitimately and people who live here – if you live here and use this card, it is not the correct way to access health care.” RUMOUR He said it was rumoured that the UK did not pay Spain for British citizens receiving healthcare but in 2011/12 the British Government had paid Spain 237 million euros for its
commitments to fund the EHIC scheme and those entitled to care funded by the UK. “It paid 4,267€ for every pensioner who is registered for healthcare, regardless of how much the healthcare costs – you may not have seen a doctor or received hundreds of thousands of euros worth of treatment.” He told the meeting an EHIC was for people on a temporary stay in Spain and entitled people to all the medical treatment necessary during that time. Martyn explained what was “medically necessary” was decided by a doctor and would be given on the same basis as a person paying contributions in Spain He added: “It can include routine treatment or the monitoring of an ongoing condition and can also include oxygen and dialysis but we recommend you plan this is advance.” He said pensioners living in Spain were issued a UK EHIC for healthcare when they were outside Spain. PENSIONERS The UK Government pays for the healthcare of pensioners and people on long-term sickness benefit living in Spain and also paid for early retirees for a short period, usually 30 months depending on National Insurance contributions. Martyn said last year Spanish healthcare was reformed and its management taken from individual anonymous governments to the central INSS, the National Institute of Social Security. Continued on page 7