The Sponsored Patient Department forms part of the Medical Directorate of the Gibraltar Health Authority. The department continues to see an increased trend in the number of patients being referred to various UK and Spanish centres for tertiary treatments.

We are very much aware of the problems that patients face when they have to leave their home, their relatives and their friends at short notice to receive treatment in the U.K.

The GHA has put together an Information Pack to help you cope better with some of the problems you may encounter. For your information we have reproduced below a summery of the guidelines .for obtaining Sponsored Patient status. To obtain an Information Pack with the full text and lots of other useful information, for instance information on accommodation, and transport in the UK, call +350 200 72266 in office hours.

A Brief Summery of the GHA Sponsored Patients Guidelines

Your local Consultant has informed you that you will be recommended for further treatment in a U.K. hospital. Once you receive your appointment confirmation, all other arrangements can be organised.

Your appointment will be confirmed from the U.K. direct or via the Gibraltar Health Authority. You are then required to contact the Sponsored Patients Department who will then make arrangements for your air tickets, maintenance allowance, etc.

If you require accommodation in Calpe House, you will need to inform Sponsored Patients Department who will request this for you. The Calpe House Trust will contact you in due course with the result of your application, please keep in mind that room availability will be a factor. The information pack will hopefully offer you some assistance if no accommodation is available or if you would like to make your own arrangements.

You will need to get the following information ready to help the Sponsored Patients Department assess any allowance entitlements for yourself or your escort:-

a) Household income, i.e. payslips, pension slips
b) Rent or mortgage receipt
c) Service charges receipt
d) Rates receipt
e) Life insurance receipt or bank statement
f) Loan / hire purchase receipt or bank statement
g) Television rental receipt
h) Nursery Fees
i) Parental Contribution
j) Patient’s ID card

The following is the criteria under which you will be sponsored.

a) Cost of return air passage
b) Cost of return transport between airport and place of residence via cheapest method.
c) Cost of direct return transport from place of residence to hospital by public transport. Please note that taxi fares are only refundable on production of a letter from GHA or U.K. consultant.
d) Maintenance allowance as per Sponsored Patients’ assessment
e) In-patient pocket money is payable to you at the rate of £56 per week for UK and Spain.
f) For payment of maintenance allowance and for reimbursement of travel expenses, tickets and receipts must be produced.
g) Maintenance allowance is paid to you at a rate applicable to your entitlement. This allowance will be paid to you for a period not exceeding two nights after the patient’s last appointment or discharge from hospital.
h) Some U.K. hospitals agree to the GHA’s request to pay the allowances and travel expenses. In other instances, allowances and travel expenses can be claimed at the Sponsored Patients Department upon return or at the Gibraltar Information Bureau, 150 The Strand, London, WC2R 1JA.
i) Should the patient be given a further appointment within the period of 3 weeks, you are expected to remain in the U.K., as the Gibraltar Health Authority will not bear the cost of flights between U.K. and Gibraltar.
j) Any official escort to a Gibraltar Government Sponsored Patient who is on medication prescribed locally and who will be staying in the U.K. for an extended period can obtain more than one monthly prescription from their G.P. Enough prescriptions would be issued to ensure they have the medication they need while away from home. This can be done by presenting these prescriptions for approval to Mr. William Guillem at the PCC who will arrange for these prescriptions to be dispensed at the patient’s pharmacy.

24 hour on call emergency:

Tel: +350 200 72266 and ask for ‘sponsored patients officer‘ to be bleeped