I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this article but, if it is true, then the long predicted problems with high densities of older retired people in Spain and France is beginning to occur. The article claims that doctors are refusing to treat English patients without an interpreter as a means of discouraging the use of local health facilitites.
A quote from the article:
It is a familiar sight in any British hospital. Older women in blue sashes staffing a makeshift charity stall in a busy corridor. But here in Denia hospital on Spain's Costa Blanca, the volunteers have no time to serve tea. The expat-run charity Help is indispensable, providing interpreting and sometimes nursing and aftercare for the growing number of British patients that pass through here.
Tens of thousands of British settlers pursuing a dream retirement in the sun have doubled the population in this area in the past two years - and put a growing strain on a creaking Spanish health service.
Now Spanish authorities say they are placing an unbearable burden on scant medical resources and are demanding that the UK pays for their care. And in a move likely to send a chill through the expat community, Spanish doctors - even those who speak English - are now refusing to treat anyone who cannot speak Spanish without an interpreter present.
None of this is very surprising. That doesn’t make it any less of a concern. Wait for the next headline: “Price of Spanish retirement properties set to crash”. I am not joking. Dick Stroud
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