NHS spends £13.3 MILLION in a year caring for more than 3,000 foreign mothers

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The NHS spent more than £13million helping thousands of women from abroad give birth last year.

So far less than half of that money has been claimed back after it was spent on health tourists giving birth on maternity wards in England.

And one hospital trust, Barts Health, racked up a bill of £1.7million caring for 232 women who had their children in its hospitals, The Sun revealed.

Critics called the expenditure 'ludicrous' after it was revealed less than half the money has been claimed back.

It can cost thousands of pounds for a woman to have her baby delivered in an NHS hospital if she isn't a UK resident, and extra care costs even more. 

But because childbirth is a medical emergency, hospitals will deliver a baby for free and may try to reclaim money for extra care later.

This doesn't always work as planned, however – only £4.9million out of the £13.3m spent in 2017-18 was reclaimed by the NHS.

'It is ludicrous that thousands of pregnant women arrive in England to have their child for free,' said Joyce Robins, spokesperson for Patient Concern told The Sun.

Some 3,891 foreign maternity cases were recorded by the NHS in 2017 and 2018 – suggesting more than 10 ineligible women per day were giving birth in NHS hospitals.