Our Assistance team are here for you 24/7, 365 days a year. They provide expert advice on your cover, offer information on suitable medical facilities, and make arrangements to get you home following a medical emergency.
First Thing To Do
In the event of a serious medical emergency, you should first call an ambulance.
When you can, please contact our Assistance team on:
If you are in a non-emergency situation but still require medical assistance, please give us a call. We will set up a case for you, and refer you to our third-party GP Consultation service.
When you contact our Assistance team, they will need some information from you:
The patient's policy number.
As much information about the situation as possible.
The name of the hospital, the ward and the treating doctor.
The patient's UK GP contact details in the event the team need further medical information
Once our team has gathered information about your situation, our team may decide it’s better to bring you home to be treated, unfortunately, this might be sooner than you had planned. But, coming home straight away is not always an option even if your treating doctors consider you to be ‘fit to fly’. For more information on this read our philosophies
Rest assured that once you’ve spoken to our Assistance team and your policy has been verified your policy will be extended to cover you until you are able to return home. When the optimal time for your return home has been identified by us, our team can make the safest arrangements for you. This can include airport transfers, flight transfers, land transfers and medical assistance during the flight if required.
The hospital should send any bills or invoices directly to us. In the event they’re sent to you, don’t worry, just send them to us and we can take care of correspondence with them from that point.
Our years of experience have taught us that the best emergency medical care in most locations around the world is found in state or public facilities. This is largely because they are the best equipped to deal with the broadest range of emergency situations. For this reason, we will not approve the costs of attendance at a private medical facility unless, for example, there is not a suitable state or public facility within a reasonable vicinity. Read our philosophies for more information on optimal care abroad.
Please call our Assistance team if you’re unsure of your nearest suitable medical facility.
Unethical Treatment
We are aware of cases where private medical facilities have detained our customers in a ward or holding room and exerted pressure on our customers for direct payment by them. You should be aware that it may be a breach of human rights for a person to be unlawfully detained against their will.
We will not tolerate this unethical treatment of our customers and we will report facilities who undertake these practices to the appropriate authority.
