UK residents visiting the Channel Islands must ensure they have adequate travel insurance from 1 April as the healthcare arrangements for UK visitors to the Islands are due to change.
The current agreement, which allowed UK travellers to get a limited number of medical treatments in the Channel Islands free of charge, will end on March 31.
From April, anyone travelling to the Islands, which include Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark and Herm, will be required to pay for medical treatment should they become ill or injured there. Visitors should therefore take out adequate insurance before they travel.
Visitors from the Channel Islands to the UK will also now be liable for charges for medical treatment when visiting the UK, so they should also have health insurance cover.
The Department of Health has always recommended that UK residents travelling to the Channel Islands take out travel insurance as even with the agreement in place, UK tourists have always been charged for a number of healthcare services including prescribed medicines, A&E hospital treatment, emergency dental treatment, GP and other medical care, ambulance travel (in Guernsey and Alderney) and for GP treatment, dental care and prescribed medicines (in Jersey) and all medical treatment in Sark.
The Channel Islands are Crown Dependencies which are internally self-governing and have their own health services separate from the NHS.
Travel health insurance: News update: 20/03/2009
