The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 1994

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 1994 and shall come into force on 1st July 1994.

(2) In these Regulations, “the principal Regulations” means the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989(1).

Amendment of regulation 1 of the principal Regulations

2.  Paragraph (2) of regulation 1 of the principal Regulations (citation, commencement and interpretation) shall be amended by the deletion in the definition of “member State” of the words “member State of the Communities” and the substitution of “State which is a Contracting Party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area(2) but until that Agreement comes into force in relation to Liechtenstein does not include the State of Liechtenstein”.

Amendment of regulation 3 of the principal Regulations

3.  Regulation 3 of the principal Regulations (services exempted from charges) shall be amended by the insertion after the words “accident and emergency department” in paragraph (a) of the word “or”, and the deletion in that paragraph of the words “, or dental or ophthalmic emergency department”.

Amendment of regulation 4 of the principal Regulations

4.  Regulation 4 of the principal Regulations (overseas visitors exempt from charges) shall be amended—

(a) by the insertion at the end of paragraph (o) of the word “; or”;

(b) by the insertion after paragraph (o) of the following paragraph:—

“(p) who—

(i) is not a national of a Member State, and

(ii) is a national of a State which is a signatory to the European Social Charter(3), and

(iii) is not entitled to be provided with such services under a reciprocal agreement specified in Schedule 2, and

(iv) is without sufficient resources to pay the charge.”.

Amendment of Schedules to principal Regulations

5.—(1) In Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations (diseases for the treatment of which no charge is to be made)—

(a) Part I (notifiable diseases) shall be amended by the insertion after “Cholera” of “Food poisoning”;

(b) Part II (diseases to which public health enactments applied) shall be amended by—

(i) the deletion of the entries “Acute meningitis”, “Infective jaundice”, “Lassa fever” and “Marburg disease”(4);

(ii) the insertion in the appropriate places in the alphabetical order, of the following entries:—

• “Meningitis

• Meningococcal Septicaemia (without meningitis)

• Mumps

• Rubella

• Viral hepatitis”.

(2) Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations (countries or territories in respect of which the United Kingdom Government has entered into a reciprocal agreement) shall be amended by—

(a) the deletion of the entries “Austria”, “Czechoslovakia”, “Finland” and “Norway”;

(b) the insertion in the appropriate places in the alphabetical order, of the following entries:—

• “Barbados

• Czech Republic

• Russian Federation

• Slovak Republic”; and

(c) the insertion at the end of the entry “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” of the words “except the States of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Russian Federation”.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health

Tom Sackville

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department of Health

9th June 1994