Foreign patients fail to pay hospital care bills (From Ilkley Gazette)

Foreign patients fail to pay hospital care bills

9:00am Sunday 12th August 2012 in Local news By Observer reporter

More than £24,000 is owed to Airedale NHS Foundation Trust by foreign patients who have failed to pay their bills after treatment, it has been revealed.

And almost £600,000 is also owed to Bradford Hospitals Trust, a Freedom of Information request has shown.

A detailed response from Airedale shows invoices totalling £112,536 were issued in a five-year period, and £50,784 was paid. Twelve patients had their bills written off to a combined total of £37,263, and the hospital is seeking payment from ten patients totalling £24,489.

An Airedale NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: “In the majority of cases, these costs relate to providing urgent and emergency care.

“Under Department of Health guidelines, we have a duty of care and are required to treat these cases. We are taking every measure possible to try to recover this amount we are owed.”

Unless their country has a reciprocal arrangement with the UK, foreign nationals are required to pay for any non-emergency NHS treatment they receive.

But in many cases, recovering the debts proves impossible, and it is estimated the NHS is owed £40 million across the country, with a total of £14 million written off by health trusts last year.

Chris Skidmore, the Tory MP who compiled the figures, is campaigning to change the law so more can be done to secure payment before treatment starts.

He said: “The NHS is a national health service, not an international one.”

Ministers recently said they are ‘determined’ to reduce the amount of debt being written off. With the cost of treatments rising along with patient numbers, there has been a steady increase in the amount of cash owed to the trusts by foreign nationals.

TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign manager, Robert Oxley, said: “No-one should be denied emergency treatment, but with NHS budgets already stretched, we cannot afford to bankroll an international health service.

“It is UK taxpayers who are left picking up the tab when foreign nationals don’t pay their bills. More must be done to ensure they aren’t able to shirk their responsibilities. Those who aren’t eligible for free care and who are in no need of urgent care should not be treated at taxpayers’ expense.”