So, I sat her down in triage. She was just over half way through her pregnancy. We discussed the reason she was in the department – abdominal pain – not exactly hugely uncommon in pregnancy. We talked about general health, which was fine, and all the other personal questions that go along with abdominal pain in pregnancy.
Then I asked about whether she’d had a scan.
No.
Okay, no scan? 1st pregnancy? Odd.
Have you got your folder from the midwife I ask.
No… she hasn’t got a midwife.
Err, okay, that’s even more odd. More that 5 months in and not referred to a midwife?
Then she explains; she’s just moved to the UK to be with her partner (who works here). She’s not got her National Insurance number yet despite applying for it. And so she’s not been accessing any healthcare.
One of the joys for me of working in the ED is that it’s free*. I take great pleasure in absolutely not giving a monkeys if you’re from the UK or from Mongolia just visiting for the day. I’m a nurse, it’s not my job to worry about whether you can afford the healthcare, it’s my job to deliver it to you as you need it and to the best of my, and the service’s ability.
I did tell her to go off and register with a GP, which she can do as a temporary resident anyhow. I hoped that would get her off to a midwife.
But is this the world that people want in the UK? A world where people can’t get proper healthcare because they’re foreign? That’s not a country, nor a service, that I want to be involved in.
* I do however have moments of wanting to bill people for completely inappropriate use. Or just being too intoxicated to be locked in the cells overnight. But that’s a whole other debate.
