Looks like they wanted him to use NHS, unless he was dying. Luckily, I live in America, where no travel insurrer will ever tell you to return to as costs will increase by 40x.
If you think you've found a neat hack like:
-- Skip buying regular health insurance
-- Buy a $300 12-month travel insurance instead
-- Spend the savings traveling around for a year while being fully covered for medical expenses
You're probably missing something.
These travel policies may notionally cover some level of urgent medical care but they're mostly designed (and priced for) cancelations due to injury/sickness/emergency, lost property, and getting you back home even if that requires a helicopter from some remote hillside (hopefully).
I'm sure there are 12 month policies you can buy that legitimately cover international health care for a 12 month period in addition to other travel-related risks but they'll cost a lot more.