Question
Can students in the UK get free healthcare?
29 October 2010. Related: Access to treatment, All topics, Pregnancy.
Great website. Very thankful for your answers & the wealth of information. I have a few questions:
1. Can foreign nationals studying in the UK access free HIV support all the way from pre-natal care to delivery?
2. Why are foreign trained doctors denied the opportunity to join the medical fraternity either at post-graduate level especially in dentistry on completion of the Registration examination? Yet they know how to protect themselves? Are we assuming that the UK doctors get regularly tested for infectious diseases? I think this is unfair.
I appreciate you taking time to clarify the above.
Answer
Hi
For your first question, anyone who is officially studying in the UK has free access to health care. This includes HIV testing and treatment. For some people this involves having been here for more that 12 months, so please check with your college. However, for HIV and pregnancy then you can register at any HIV clinic and this would also be seen as an issue for protecting the heath of the baby.
I’m sorry that I have no answer for the second question.
Dentists are one of the few professions (also surgeons and psychiatric nurses) where HIV (or other viral infections including hepatitis) prevent someone actively practicing.
This is because of the higher risk of cuts and transmission. Regular doctors and nurses can be HIV-positive and still practice.
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