Ukrainian refugees who travelled to the UK to escape the war are risking their lives by returning to their homeland to seek urgent medical treatments after giving up on the NHS.
Due the NHS pressures and long waiting lists for procedures, Ukrainians living with families across the UK are taking the perilous trip back into a war zone where they are treated by doctors immediately despite Russian bombardments of their towns and cities.
Soon after President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops into Ukraine on 24 February last year, the UK Government announced that all refugees from the country would be permitted free and full access to NHS services.
Maiia Habruk escaped Kyiv last spring along with around five million fellow citizens and found a safe haven with a couple in south east London. But she returned to Ukraine in mid-December after failing to get the treatment she needed from her local hospital in Lewisham.
Ms Habruk, 31, suffers from angina and, despite experiencing chest pains was unable to book a face-to-face appointment with a GP. During a phone consultation she was told to take paracetamol, but the pain persisted.
Soon after this, Ms Habruk also suffered from severe pain in her cheek and waited four hours in local A&E department before getting to the front of the queue.
“I had hellish pain in my face,” said Maiia. “I couldn’t sleep, and the painkillers didn’t work.
“I went to the NHS chatroom online and I was told to wait for a call the following day, but the call did not happen, so I went to the hospital.
“After waiting four hours the doctor didn’t even look at me and she also told me to take paracetamol. Again, it didn’t help, and I was still in severe pain.”
She decided the only way to get the treatment she believed she required was to make the 24-hour trip back to Ukraine, which includes a flight to Poland and a long and dangerous train journey to Kyiv.
“I was told it was an urgent issue with my wisdom tooth and that I had to have an extraction immediately,” added Ms Habruk.
“I do not in any way want to criticise the NHS. I think it’s amazing that everyone can get help for free.”
Ms Habruk’s pain was coming from pulpitis, an inflammation of the soft inner tissue of a tooth that, if not treated immediately, can lead to permanent pain or sensitivity. The doctor in Ukraine took the tooth out immediately.
Maiia, who witnessed almost daily bombing raids by the Russians while in Kyiv, knows three other Ukrainians in London who sought emergency health procedures back in their war-torn country due to the lack of availability of quick treatment from the NHS.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told i: “Vladimir Putin is dropping bombs on Ukrainian hospitals, yet patients are travelling back to Kyiv rather than face NHS waiting lists.
“Rishi Sunak ought to be ashamed of the state of the health service.”
Another Ukrainian woman who sought refuge in Glasgow also travelled back home to seek medical help.
Maria is 22 years old and has been living in Scotland since the summer. She suffers from a hormonal thyroid condition that requires regular testing and treatment.
But after visiting her new GP in Glasgow, she decided the wait for treatment was so long that it made more sense for her to risk traveling back to the war in her own country to see a doctor in Kyiv.
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “It’s a damning indictment of the government’s record on the NHS that Ukrainian refugees are returning to a war-torn country to access health care.”
NHS services across the UK are suffering from unprecedented admissions due to a surge in flu, the battle with Covid-19 and other winter illnesses. Ambulance services are recording record delays, and health trust around the nation have declared critical incidents.
A spokeswoman for Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust said: “We’re unable to comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality.
“Patients presenting at our Emergency Department will receive the appropriate treatment for the symptoms they present with.
“We would urge anyone with concerns about their care to contact our PALS and complaints service, which will carry out a thorough investigation.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Across the UK, Europe and internationally, health systems are facing significant pressures due to the impact of the pandemic, the rapid spike in flu, Strep A and the ongoing high levels of Covid.”
An NHS spokesperson said: “Refugees living in this country should be able to access the care and support they need. The NHS is under significant pressure, with the latest figures showing 19 in 20 beds occupied, high levels of respiratory diseases in hospital, and that’s on top of record A&E demand and over 14,000 patients in hospital each day despite being medically fit for discharge, but it’s important people continue to come forward for care – using 999 in an emergency or by contacting your GP or 111 online.”
The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.
If you can go back to get medical treatment then you can stay there
I work and pay taxes and get less from the,government than migrants and ‘refugees’, where’s my free dental care? If you can go back to Ukraine for healthcare you’re clearly not in any danger.
I feel sorry for them, hopefully they get the medical treatment they need. It is a damn shame we have had the mass murdering tories in power for 13 years and theyre hellbent on fucking our healthcare system over.
Hey, if waiting times are better there, I might consider going there myself
[deleted]
> “I had hellish pain in my face,” said Maiia. “I couldn’t sleep, and the painkillers didn’t work.
> “I went to the NHS chatroom online and I was told to wait for a call the following day, but the call did not happen, so I went to the hospital.
> “After waiting four hours the doctor didn’t even look at me and she also told me to take paracetamol. Again, it didn’t help, and I was still in severe pain.”
> She decided the only way to get the treatment she believed she required was to make the 24-hour trip back to Ukraine, which includes a flight to Poland and a long and dangerous train journey to Kyiv.
*That’s* the reason she returned to a war zone? A missed call and a four hour wait?
I was involved in a car accident last year – fairly minor – but the next day I had some quite intense pain in my back. I went to the walk-in at the hospital
On telling them what was wrong (that I’d been in a car accident and had back / head pain) they had someone examining me less than 5 minutes later.
Happily there wasn’t anything life threatening – they’d checked I wasn’t about to fall over on the hospital floor – so I was sent back to the walk-in as a lower priority.
I waited there for *six* hours at which point they announced it’d be at least another 3 hour wait. They were prioritising children and the elderly and it was a busy day. I decided to leave as although the pain was bad, they’d checked it wasn’t something *terrible* so I went home to self-medicate.
Now it’s not good that I didn’t get to see someone, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have thought at just 4 hours “Right, time to spend a whole day travelling to a war zone”.
The NHS is in trouble, but this story is ridiculous.
Take us with you now to Ukraine, I want my doctor appointments:))
Shocking but please let’s hear more about Lab solutions to NHS crisis. You are close to govt now. Tone needs to shift to be more constructive, positive.
Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to consult a private dentist rather than the cost of return plane and train journeys to Ukraine? Just a thought …
Surely the cost of a private tooth extraction here would have been cheaper, easier and safer then traveling to Ukraine
Its yet another anecdote framed as something really common
Why is our news so crap?
What a shame…..Did you drive past all the men currently freezing to death in trenches on the way back? They are the reason you can fly back to Ukraine.
Go and pay for a private dentist and that tooth would come right out.
That sounds like a shit doctor passing off patients as time wasters tbh. Annoying when they don’t take you seriously.
I was put on an 18 months waiting list to treat dental abscess. I jumped on easy jet to Turkey and got treated.
Not much of a refugee when you return to the place you flee…
Maybe they can drive a challenger tank back home for us, and we’ll put the savings into the NHS?
Wait, so the refugees came here solely for NHS treatment? Good to know.
It’s almost as though the system is setup for the current population not anyone that decides to turn up
Generally speaking, refugees who go back to the country they fled will have their refugee status revoked.there are some odd exceptions of course. But this stands true for most cases.
I.e. an afghan refugee travelling to Afghanistan. Will lose their status.
Was a Dental Surgery manager and most people working in NHS dentistry.
When the banding system started we knew that this was the end of NHS Dentistry as we knew it.
Basically NHS dental surgery’s may provide NHS dental treatment but we don’t work for the NHS. It’s like a franchise.
We get no help with rent, equipment etc.
We get paid a set amount for the whole year and if you go over that amount tough. So this is why it’s hard to get seen as a new patient.
The best time to go and join a NHS dental surgery is April.
Where’s as before we charged per patient per treatment and it worked perfectly well.
It’s ridiculous that we get the same amount of money ( Band 2) £65.20. To remove a tooth which if straightforward can be done in a 20 minute appointment with not using any materials etc.
We get the same amount to do a root canal treatment which is normally two half hour appointments and using materials.
So this is why dentist’s don’t like doing a rct on the NHS.
Exaggerated. It’s difficult to settle in another Country, especially if you have been focused too.
Leaving family behind is priority. Worse still just leaving with nothing., whereas you had a complete life where you come from.
Honestly Media…
Hang on a second. The Tories were making great play the last few days this was about the Scottish NHS – it’s been happening in England to? Hypocritical scummy bastards
They can’t be that Ill if they can do all that travelling
Hang on, UK. After Brexit, NHS will be so much better off!
​
Oh, wait …
A woman had to wait over 12 hours for an ambulance and then had to wait in an ambulance for more hours until a bed was available
When I worked as a receptionist in Manchester we always had drunk polish and Romanians showing up because they didn’t want to pay for a taxi so what they would do is call an ambulance claiming to have been attacked or had fallen over and hurt themselves so they could stay over night in hospital bed taking up our time keeping a eye on them constantly to make sure that they weren’t falling in and out or had a concussion
Back to the frontline where the treatment is quicker. Come on UK, get your shit together.
She went to the UK doctors twice and both time they gave her paracetamol? And it ended up being a serious issue?
That’s how you KNOW this story isn’t made up, that’s the most stereotypical visit to the NHS you can have, I remember my family laughing about it 20 years ago.
28 comments
Ukrainian refugees who travelled to the UK to escape the war are risking their lives by returning to their homeland to seek urgent medical treatments after giving up on the NHS.
Due the NHS pressures and long waiting lists for procedures, Ukrainians living with families across the UK are taking the perilous trip back into a war zone where they are treated by doctors immediately despite Russian bombardments of their towns and cities.
Soon after President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops into Ukraine on 24 February last year, the UK Government announced that all refugees from the country would be permitted free and full access to NHS services.
Maiia Habruk escaped Kyiv last spring along with around five million fellow citizens and found a safe haven with a couple in south east London. But she returned to Ukraine in mid-December after failing to get the treatment she needed from her local hospital in Lewisham.
Ms Habruk, 31, suffers from angina and, despite experiencing chest pains was unable to book a face-to-face appointment with a GP. During a phone consultation she was told to take paracetamol, but the pain persisted.
Soon after this, Ms Habruk also suffered from severe pain in her cheek and waited four hours in local A&E department before getting to the front of the queue.
“I had hellish pain in my face,” said Maiia. “I couldn’t sleep, and the painkillers didn’t work.
“I went to the NHS chatroom online and I was told to wait for a call the following day, but the call did not happen, so I went to the hospital.
“After waiting four hours the doctor didn’t even look at me and she also told me to take paracetamol. Again, it didn’t help, and I was still in severe pain.”
She decided the only way to get the treatment she believed she required was to make the 24-hour trip back to Ukraine, which includes a flight to Poland and a long and dangerous train journey to Kyiv.
“I was told it was an urgent issue with my wisdom tooth and that I had to have an extraction immediately,” added Ms Habruk.
“I do not in any way want to criticise the NHS. I think it’s amazing that everyone can get help for free.”
Ms Habruk’s pain was coming from pulpitis, an inflammation of the soft inner tissue of a tooth that, if not treated immediately, can lead to permanent pain or sensitivity. The doctor in Ukraine took the tooth out immediately.
Maiia, who witnessed almost daily bombing raids by the Russians while in Kyiv, knows three other Ukrainians in London who sought emergency health procedures back in their war-torn country due to the lack of availability of quick treatment from the NHS.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told i: “Vladimir Putin is dropping bombs on Ukrainian hospitals, yet patients are travelling back to Kyiv rather than face NHS waiting lists.
“Rishi Sunak ought to be ashamed of the state of the health service.”
Another Ukrainian woman who sought refuge in Glasgow also travelled back home to seek medical help.
Maria is 22 years old and has been living in Scotland since the summer. She suffers from a hormonal thyroid condition that requires regular testing and treatment.
But after visiting her new GP in Glasgow, she decided the wait for treatment was so long that it made more sense for her to risk traveling back to the war in her own country to see a doctor in Kyiv.
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “It’s a damning indictment of the government’s record on the NHS that Ukrainian refugees are returning to a war-torn country to access health care.”
NHS services across the UK are suffering from unprecedented admissions due to a surge in flu, the battle with Covid-19 and other winter illnesses. Ambulance services are recording record delays, and health trust around the nation have declared critical incidents.
A spokeswoman for Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust said: “We’re unable to comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality.
“Patients presenting at our Emergency Department will receive the appropriate treatment for the symptoms they present with.
“We would urge anyone with concerns about their care to contact our PALS and complaints service, which will carry out a thorough investigation.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Across the UK, Europe and internationally, health systems are facing significant pressures due to the impact of the pandemic, the rapid spike in flu, Strep A and the ongoing high levels of Covid.”
An NHS spokesperson said: “Refugees living in this country should be able to access the care and support they need. The NHS is under significant pressure, with the latest figures showing 19 in 20 beds occupied, high levels of respiratory diseases in hospital, and that’s on top of record A&E demand and over 14,000 patients in hospital each day despite being medically fit for discharge, but it’s important people continue to come forward for care – using 999 in an emergency or by contacting your GP or 111 online.”
The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.
If you can go back to get medical treatment then you can stay there
I work and pay taxes and get less from the,government than migrants and ‘refugees’, where’s my free dental care? If you can go back to Ukraine for healthcare you’re clearly not in any danger.
I feel sorry for them, hopefully they get the medical treatment they need. It is a damn shame we have had the mass murdering tories in power for 13 years and theyre hellbent on fucking our healthcare system over.
Hey, if waiting times are better there, I might consider going there myself
[deleted]
> “I had hellish pain in my face,” said Maiia. “I couldn’t sleep, and the painkillers didn’t work.
> “I went to the NHS chatroom online and I was told to wait for a call the following day, but the call did not happen, so I went to the hospital.
> “After waiting four hours the doctor didn’t even look at me and she also told me to take paracetamol. Again, it didn’t help, and I was still in severe pain.”
> She decided the only way to get the treatment she believed she required was to make the 24-hour trip back to Ukraine, which includes a flight to Poland and a long and dangerous train journey to Kyiv.
*That’s* the reason she returned to a war zone? A missed call and a four hour wait?
I was involved in a car accident last year – fairly minor – but the next day I had some quite intense pain in my back. I went to the walk-in at the hospital
On telling them what was wrong (that I’d been in a car accident and had back / head pain) they had someone examining me less than 5 minutes later.
Happily there wasn’t anything life threatening – they’d checked I wasn’t about to fall over on the hospital floor – so I was sent back to the walk-in as a lower priority.
I waited there for *six* hours at which point they announced it’d be at least another 3 hour wait. They were prioritising children and the elderly and it was a busy day. I decided to leave as although the pain was bad, they’d checked it wasn’t something *terrible* so I went home to self-medicate.
Now it’s not good that I didn’t get to see someone, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have thought at just 4 hours “Right, time to spend a whole day travelling to a war zone”.
The NHS is in trouble, but this story is ridiculous.
Take us with you now to Ukraine, I want my doctor appointments:))
Shocking but please let’s hear more about Lab solutions to NHS crisis. You are close to govt now. Tone needs to shift to be more constructive, positive.
Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to consult a private dentist rather than the cost of return plane and train journeys to Ukraine? Just a thought …
Surely the cost of a private tooth extraction here would have been cheaper, easier and safer then traveling to Ukraine
Its yet another anecdote framed as something really common
Why is our news so crap?
What a shame…..Did you drive past all the men currently freezing to death in trenches on the way back? They are the reason you can fly back to Ukraine.
Go and pay for a private dentist and that tooth would come right out.
That sounds like a shit doctor passing off patients as time wasters tbh. Annoying when they don’t take you seriously.
I was put on an 18 months waiting list to treat dental abscess. I jumped on easy jet to Turkey and got treated.
Not much of a refugee when you return to the place you flee…
Maybe they can drive a challenger tank back home for us, and we’ll put the savings into the NHS?
Wait, so the refugees came here solely for NHS treatment? Good to know.
It’s almost as though the system is setup for the current population not anyone that decides to turn up
Generally speaking, refugees who go back to the country they fled will have their refugee status revoked.there are some odd exceptions of course. But this stands true for most cases.
I.e. an afghan refugee travelling to Afghanistan. Will lose their status.
Was a Dental Surgery manager and most people working in NHS dentistry.
When the banding system started we knew that this was the end of NHS Dentistry as we knew it.
Basically NHS dental surgery’s may provide NHS dental treatment but we don’t work for the NHS. It’s like a franchise.
We get no help with rent, equipment etc.
We get paid a set amount for the whole year and if you go over that amount tough. So this is why it’s hard to get seen as a new patient.
The best time to go and join a NHS dental surgery is April.
Where’s as before we charged per patient per treatment and it worked perfectly well.
It’s ridiculous that we get the same amount of money ( Band 2) £65.20. To remove a tooth which if straightforward can be done in a 20 minute appointment with not using any materials etc.
We get the same amount to do a root canal treatment which is normally two half hour appointments and using materials.
So this is why dentist’s don’t like doing a rct on the NHS.
Exaggerated. It’s difficult to settle in another Country, especially if you have been focused too.
Leaving family behind is priority. Worse still just leaving with nothing., whereas you had a complete life where you come from.
Honestly Media…
Hang on a second. The Tories were making great play the last few days this was about the Scottish NHS – it’s been happening in England to? Hypocritical scummy bastards
They can’t be that Ill if they can do all that travelling
Hang on, UK. After Brexit, NHS will be so much better off!
​
Oh, wait …
A woman had to wait over 12 hours for an ambulance and then had to wait in an ambulance for more hours until a bed was available
When I worked as a receptionist in Manchester we always had drunk polish and Romanians showing up because they didn’t want to pay for a taxi so what they would do is call an ambulance claiming to have been attacked or had fallen over and hurt themselves so they could stay over night in hospital bed taking up our time keeping a eye on them constantly to make sure that they weren’t falling in and out or had a concussion
Back to the frontline where the treatment is quicker. Come on UK, get your shit together.
She went to the UK doctors twice and both time they gave her paracetamol? And it ended up being a serious issue?
That’s how you KNOW this story isn’t made up, that’s the most stereotypical visit to the NHS you can have, I remember my family laughing about it 20 years ago.