Health tourists owe Britain £62million for NHS treatment
HOSPITAL chiefs are chasing millions of pounds owed by health tourists who have fled the country without paying their bills.
Data released by NHS trusts show that one London hospital is owed £17.9million by foreigners not entitled to free services.
A total of £62million is due to 100 trusts, according to information published under the Freedom of Information Act.
The scale of health tourism has been underestimated for years.
The Department of Health recently estimated that the annual figure could be as high as £2billion.
The disclosure is likely to embarrass the Government, which has faced a long controversy over the cost of the problem.
Analysis showed that one patient racked up a tab of more than £420,000.
Several others owed more than £100,000 for lifesaving treatments including dialysis, bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy.
Another is being chased for more than £15,000 over treatment for alcoholism.
Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Nobody’s going to turn away a tourist in need of emergency medical attention but taxpayers will be rightly outraged that health tourists are getting away with millions of pounds of longer term treatment at their expense.
If tourists want to make use of the NHS then they must pay
"If tourists want to make use of the NHS then they must pay.”
The NHS has become a magnet for the seriously ill from across the globe because it will not turn away anyone.
In one of the most brazen cases, a Zimbabwean advertising executive Caroline Nyadzayo, who owes £3,000 after giving birth at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, appeared in a publicity photograph with health minister Dan Poulter.
Statistics provided by nearly 100 trusts revealed foreign patients failed to pay more than £62.8million between 2010 and 2015.
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London revealed that it was owed £17.9million from the past five years.
The biggest unpaid bill was £428,103 for the treatment of a haemophiliac between 2011 and 2014 at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We want international visitors to feel welcome to use the NHS provided they pay for it — just as families in Britain do through their taxes.
“That’s why this government is the first to introduce rules, which come into force in the next few weeks, to help recoup up to £500million a year by 2017-18.”
