By Alexandra Thompson Senior Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 09:47 BST, 13 May 2019 | Updated: 09:49 BST, 13 May 2019
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Foreign patients owe the NHS millions in unpaid bills, figures have revealed.
NHS Trusts were forced to write off £27million last year alone after patients who were ineligible for free treatment did not pay up.
And over the past four years, the health service has missed out on an astonishing £76million from overseas patients who have not forked out.
Experts worry the already over-stretched NHS is being 'abused' due to foreigners seeing it as a 'soft touch'.
Foreign patients owe the NHS millions in unpaid bills, figures have revealed (stock)
Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern, told The Sun: 'It is absolutely ridiculous.
'Ministers need to do more to discourage ineligible people from abusing the NHS.
'We are seen as a soft touch. We cannot afford to treat the world, with the NHS already overrun.'
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, argues Britons 'often have to cough up at A&E' if they injure themselves abroad and the same rules should apply for holidaymakers in the UK.
The cost of treating patients who are ineligible for treatment has risen by more than two-thirds from £16.2million in 2016-to-2017, the figures show.
This is despite the Government cracking down on foreign visitors using the NHS for free.
In 2017, rules were introduced that charge foreign patients requiring hospital treatment an upfront cost of 150 per cent of the standard NHS rate, unless they qualify for exemptions. Personal health insurance should cover this.
