Imagine having to travel hundreds of miles from home for hospital treatment, only to discover that you could be charged a visitor levy because you need to stay overnight.
Then imagine having to claim that money back through the NHS.
It sounds rather ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yet that is precisely the situation we could be creating for patients across the Highlands.
Today, I raised this concern in the Scottish Parliament, questioning why we would create an unnecessary merry-go-round of public money when there is a much simpler solution.
A patient, not a visitor
Living in the Highlands often means travelling considerable distances to access specialist healthcare.
For people across the Highlands, an appointment at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, or treatment further afield, can involve a lengthy journey. Depending on the appointment and available transport, an overnight stay may be unavoidable.
That isn’t a holiday. It isn’t a leisure trip. It’s someone trying to get the healthcare they need.
Yet under Highland Council’s proposed visitor levy, patients who need overnight accommodation could find themselves paying an additional charge simply because they are staying away from home.
The situation becomes even more frustrating when we consider what could happen next.
A patient could pay the visitor levy to Highland Council, only for NHS Highland to reimburse that same charge through the Highlands and Islands Patient Travel Scheme.
In other words, public money could be collected by one public body and then paid back through another, with the patient caught in the middle.
They might have to pay upfront, submit a claim and deal with additional paperwork at a time when they already have quite enough to worry about.
Surely we can devise a better system than that?
Taking the issue to Parliament
During General Questions today, I asked the Scottish Government to work with councils to ensure that accommodation required for NHS treatment is exempt from visitor levies in the first place.
The legislation already gives councils powers to introduce exemptions within their local schemes.
However, there is currently no Scotland-wide exemption specifically covering people who need overnight accommodation to attend medical appointments.
Earlier this year, Parliament considered an amendment that would have required ministers to introduce a national exemption for medical stays. The Scottish Government opposed that approach, arguing that exemptions should remain a matter for individual councils, and the amendment was not agreed to.
That makes it all the more important that Highland Council uses the powers available to it sensibly.
A straightforward solution
I am not opposed to the principle of a visitor levy. But I do believe we need to be careful about who it affects and how it operates, particularly in rural and Highland communities.
Someone travelling for hospital treatment should not be treated in the same way as someone visiting the Highlands on holiday.
Nor should patients be expected to navigate an additional financial and administrative hurdle simply because the healthcare they need isn’t available close to home.
My argument is straightforward: if an overnight stay is necessary to access NHS treatment, it should be exempt from the visitor levy.
That would avoid unnecessary charges, reduce paperwork and prevent public money circulating between Highland Council and NHS Highland for no obvious benefit.
I want the Scottish Government and Highland Council to work together to ensure that patients are properly protected before any Highland visitor levy is introduced.
For people already facing long journeys, medical appointments and the worry that often comes with treatment, removing one unnecessary complication would be a welcome bit of common sense.