I have a Home and Lifestyle policy with NFU Mutual which contains annual holiday insurance handled by a French company called Mutuaide. Before I go on I must stress NFU Mutual are a brilliant company. On the down side they use Mutuaide as the holiday insurance handler as do loads of other insurers.

2 weeks ago my wife and I had a holiday in Madeira. My wife fell ill on arrival. Several days later she was admitted to hospital inMadeira with a heart problem. My daughter in the UK went into our local NFU branch told them what had happened which kicked Mutuaide into gear. The hospital stabilises my wife and said she needed repatriation with a doctor in attendance.

What followed was a nightmare Mutuaide avoiding doing anything, excuses like; the most difficult task was to get someone admitted to a UK Hospital, it took up to 48 hours to get permission to take oxygen onto an aircraft. Both lies. Anyway my wife did not require oxygen plus aircraft have to carry medical oxygen anyway. If it were not for our determination and eventually intervention of our local NFU office we would still be there.

I have just submitted a 3,000 word complaint.

Before you take out holiday insurance check Mutuaide is not the underlying provider.

I would suggest that people avoid French Insurers if they can, as they do have a reputation for poor customer service.

As unclebulgaria says, French-based insurers have a poor reputation.

However, there are a few points worth noting:

- medical assistance companies provide assistance within the terms of the insurance policy. These almost invariably provide for what is considered medically necessary (as opposed to what the client wants), in the opinion of the assistance company doctor. The local hospital may recommend repat with a doctor, but it's only a recommendation, and what are the local doctor's aeromedical qualifications? In my experience (1000+ repats), local doctors often get it wrong, sometimes dangerously so. Hardly surprising - flight physiology and aeromedical evacuation are specialist subjects.

- passenger aircraft do not routinely carry medical oxygen. They do carry emergency oxygen - for use in emergency, not routine use as in a repatriation. Emergency oxygen cylinders usually provide a fixed flow and are not suitable for medical use, which may require specific flow rates or concentration. Oximetry is usually required. Different airlines have different rules on the carriage of medical oxygen; for example, some will supply it on request (and require notice for this, as it may only be held at a hub airport), others require the medical escort to provide it in an aviation-safe cylinder.

- flying a patient requires medical clearance from the airline. Again different airlines have different rules. BA and some others require clearance by their own medical staff, for example.

- getting a bed in a UK hospital is a nightmare, but it is good practice to do it before a flight is organised. Not doing it can mean many hours waiting; any aeromedical flight is fatiguing for the patient, and their condition is not usually improved by a long wait in A&E.

A complaint letter tends to get better results if it's short and concise. A 3000 word complaint will contain so many different issues it will be difficult to reply to and often gets the handler in a defensive mood

Two threads merged and thread tidied.

Haven’t got much time to stay with this thread as my wife is very ill in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

Compared with Funchal Hospital going into the QE was like going into a 5 star hotel with gourmet food.

I agree with dacouc says about keeping complaints short and concise, this was and it clearly documented 9 lies told by the French company. The cost of the mobile phone usage alone approached £200.

I had to arrange the UK Hospital admission. When I telephoned the duty doctor in the coronary heart department at the QE the response was "no problem could you let me know when and get me a doctors report” which I did. We traveled back to the UK with a doctor, no oxygen was required nor had it ever been specified! Just one of many delaying tactics.

It is almost a year since I posted this item. An update:

The Financial Ombudsman Service has had nothing but grief from NFU Mutual. NFU have been stalling all the way . I quote a from a recent Email from the FOS to me "Your frustration is understandable and I do agree that NFU Mutual has had a reasonable amount of time so far to respond to the view I issued on 9 December 2013. Should I not hear from the insurer by 21 January 2014, I will ask an ombudsman to consider issuing a final decision on the complaint."

Well NFU did respond refusing to accept the FOS Adjudicator's reccomendation. So it's on to an ombudsman to make a decision which I am told will take time. I wonder, at 70 will I live long enough to see the end of this.

If I had known how long this process was going to take I would have gone to the County Court and sued for breach of contract.

From the cases I have seen, it has taken 6 months for the actual ombudman to review, following rejection of the adjudicators recommendation. Just in case you were to ask, the ombudsman does sometimes reach a different conclusion to the adjudicators.