Healthcare treatment for overseas patients has cost Kent hospitals hundreds of thousands of pounds

The cost to Dartford and Gravesham NHS trust of hospital treatment has been £275,762 over the last two years, figures provided under the Freedom of Information Act show.

Of that sum, nearly £160,000 has been recouped but £64,686 has had to be written off by the trust after it failed to track down those who owed money.

The figures cover the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 to date.

Of the amount outstanding, £179,101 was for this year while £96,661 dates back to 2015-16.

The largest sum - £128,194 - was for maternity services, while the next highest sum was for cardiology treatment.

In a statement, the trust said: “The Trust uses a specialist debt recovery agency that can continue debt recovery in the Oversea National’s country of origin. We also work closely with immigration and register debts over £1000.00, this enables the UK Border Agency to stop individuals arriving in the country and demand debts are paid before entry is allowed.

The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust said £326,381 remains outstanding from treatment for overseas patients over the period.

However, it has been paid £476,608 for treatment - £373,417 in 2015 and £103,191 in 2016 to date - and said that it does not write-off any of the debts. Providing maternity services accounted for one of the largest sums.

The trust said:

“We always seek to recoup our costs, where it’s possible to do so. We have an Overseas Visitors Manager who co-ordinates the assessment of overseas patients to determine their eligibility for NHS hospital treatment without charge, in accordance with government legislation."

“Overseas visitors requiring non-emergency treatment should be asked for identification and an NHS number when they first present to our hospitals to ensure they are legally eligible to receive free NHS care.

“If a patient who has received emergency treatment leaves the UK, they are added to a Home Office debtors list and cannot return to the UK until the debt is settled.”

The East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said healthcare totalling £314,000 has been charged to foreign patients using hospital services in east Kent so far this financial year.

The trust has already recouped two-thirds of the money, making it one of the best performing trusts in the UK for settling of bills.

Hospitals in England will have a legal obligation from April to ensure they charge for non-urgent treatment upfront.

Foreign patients could be refused operations unless they cover their costs in advance.

Figures for the county come as it was claimed that so-called health tourism costs the UK an estimated £200 million to £2 billion per year, with Britain one of the worst countries for reclaiming money.

But the east Kent hospitals trust received payments of £200,237 out of £314,262.41 outstanding as of January 31 – ranking it seventh in the UK for recovery.

Spokesman Steve James said: “All NHS trusts in England have a legal obligation to check whether patients are eligible for free non-emergency NHS treatment and to try to recover any costs from non-eligible overseas patients.

“Our total trust budget for the year is £587 million, but as one of the top performing trusts for recovering money, we always pursue outstanding payments.”

Foreign patients have used services in east Kent relating to trauma, orthopaedics, gynaecology, renal, obstetrics and general medicine.

The trust says a single piece of surgery accounts for a quarter of this year’s total treatment bill.

Mr James added: “Overseas invoices take longer to pay than UK invoices, because in many cases the patient has to recover the money from their insurance company.

“Many invoices are paid in monthly instalments where no insurance is in place.”

Earlier this month, the Commons public accounts committee accused successive governments of failing to do enough to recover health debts.