I was reading the p&o board and came across this topic Not only football that's Come Home.
From what I can gather a passenger was Unwell on on board a princess cruise ship on a Med cruise and needed to be transported to hospital, Because she was initially treated in the ships medical facility they required payment for said treatment before she was allowed to disembark. Apparently the medical facility isn’t run by the cruise line but a separate outside company.
I believe that the lady was traveling with her niece who was left to try and sort out the payments that were due which was a problem because she couldn’t authorise use of her aunt’s credit/Visa cards.
Its a long thread but it goes on to tell of the problems also incurred at the onshore hospitals regarding payments for treatment. We always thought that having a GHIC card and robust travel insurance that we would be ok if we were unfortunate to be unwell onboard when in Europe but upon reading this perhaps we aren’t as prepared as we thought we were. Most hospitals seem to work on pay upfront and then claim from your travel insurance.🤷🏻♂️
Apparently this lady was informed that it is recommended that you carry at least three separate credit cards with a total of at least ten thousand pounds to cover immediate hospital costs and also a couple of hundred pounds in local currency to cover taxi fares etc.
Eye opening or what?