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Health care for UK pensioners visiting Scotland
What happens if I need treatment?
Is all NHS care free?
- Services that are free for everyone include:
- emergency care in a hospital (in the accident and emergency department, casualty department or minor injury unit)
- emergency care at a GP surgery
- emergency transport in an ambulance
- sexual health services
- treatment for some infectious diseases and sexually transmitted infections.
- If you need other treatment, staff at the GP surgery or hospital will ask to see some documents to help them decide if you are allowed to get health care as an NHS patient. For example, they may ask you to show:
- your UK pension book
- a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions saying that you receive a UK state pension, or
- your EHIC card (if you have one).
- If you don’t have these documents, you may need to pay for any treatment you receive.
Can my family get health care from the NHS?
- If you can get NHS care, your husband, wife or civil partner, and any of your children who are in Scotland with you, can get health care from the NHS too. The children must be aged under 16, or under 19 and in fulltime education.
I receive a war pension. Do the same rules apply to me?
- If you receive a UK War Disablement Pension, or a War Widow’s or Widower’s Pension, you can get health care from the NHS whenever you visit Scotland.
- Your husband, wife, civil partner, and children (if they are under 16, or under 19 and in full-time education) can also get NHS care while they are in Scotland with you.
- If you need treatment from the NHS while you are in Scotland, you will need to prove that you receive a war pension. For example, staff at the GP surgery or hospital will ask you to show:
- your war pension book, or
- a letter from the Ministry of Defence or Department for Work and Pensions saying you receive a UK war pension.
- If you don’t have these documents, you may need to pay for any treatment you receive.
Page last edited: 20 October 2011