An American friend I had visiting slipped and broke his arm during his stay, turns out he didn’t get travel insurance so was dreading the costs (all the relevant pages we found on the NHS indicated he would be charged for said treatment etc).

At the hospital not a single person asked if he was entitled to use the NHS, or if he had travel insurance etc. The only bill he got was for a prescription of painkillers they sent him him with (even then it was only the standard prescription costs for England which I believe was only around £7 at the time). He tried numerous departments trying to inquire about a bill but was only met with confusion. Even the place for billing said they only refund people for taxi/bus fares who are low income.