One of the reasons Nour Halabi wanted to move to the UK was because she "believes in the NHS".
The American academic, originally from Philadelphia, had no qualms about contributing financially.
In the five years since she first began working in Britain - initially in Leeds and for the past year in Aberdeen - she has paid more than £4000 in NHS surcharges, the fees levied on immigrants depending on their age, visa, and predicted usage of the health service.
Yet she has felt forced to go private - or travel overseas - for healthcare.
Dr Halabi says she is not alone.
"I travel to the US to get parts of my healthcare. I have a friend who has a complex autoimmune disease and gets all her healthcare in Greece.
"I have a Bulgarian friend who travels to Bulgaria for everything. I know friends who go back to India.
"It's a common trend among all my friends with any sort of international connection."
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Dr Halabi, 35, turned to a private GP in Aberdeen after struggling to see an NHS GP about symptoms of what turned out to be a complex autoimmune disorder.
A request for blood tests at her previous GP surgery in Leeds had been turned down because she was told they were limited to a B12 and iron check on the NHS.
When she began experiencing digestive issues and sought an appointment with her new GP in Aberdeen earlier this year, she got a telephone callback instead - but missed it because she was in a work meeting at the time.
She said: "I called back and was told he had no other availability, but they had read my notes and sent a prescription to the pharmacy.
"I was basically given medication to settle my digestive system, without being seen, without an appointment.
"I didn't feel comfortable taking medication without having been seen by a doctor, so I never went to pick it up and I never took it."
Since then she has paid £1,500 in total for a private GP consultation and subsequent tests which have diagnosed a rare autoimmune condition which causes fatigue and nausea.
With a private GP, Dr Halabi was able to get a face-to-face appointment "almost immediately" and describes the experience of being listened to as "almost emotional".
She said: "I was seen very quickly. My matter was dealt with very professionally. I've arrived at a diagnosis for something that I've been struggling with for a very long time.
"What I said to the GP was: 'I want someone to start unravelling the thread of what it is that I have'. In a 10 minute appointment in the NHS, you can't do that.
"I want to make clear that it's not the NHS's fault or the doctors' fault - they are all so overwhelmed - but when I went to the private GP and spoke with her, I said: 'I'm so relieved to finally have someone listen to me'."
Dr Halabi, an immigration scholar, said she is saddened by how much the NHS has "been deteriorated" since she first lived in the UK in 2009 while completing a Master’s degree.
She added that she also feels guilty resorting to the private sector when many others cannot afford it.
She said: "One of the reasons we wanted to move to the UK from the US is the fact that the NHS is something we truly believe in and we wanted to pay into a system that had public healthcare.
"For me it's an emotional issue. I grew up with a chronically ill father.
"But I also feel indignantly sad because it's being taken from everyone - not just me. It's very sad to see what's currently happening with the NHS.
"I'm terrified of this shift.
"Even as I participate in it - because I'm a complex case who needs someone to look at me - I'm very reluctantly participating in this shift to private healthcare because as private healthcare gets more and more powerful as a share of the market, they can start to dictate much higher prices."
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