Teh One Who Knocks
03-21-2016, 12:04 PM
By Charlie Peat - The Express
http://i.imgur.com/UGdqqcT.jpg
MILLIONS of pounds is being frittered away by the National Health Service (NHS) on treating migrants and illegal immigrants, an expert has warned.
Professor Angus Dalgleish revealed no healthcare system in the world could cope with footing the bill for those who deliberately swerve paying for care in the UK.
The cancer specialist lashed out the state of the NHS as it was revealed taxpayers' money is being wasted on cases where there is no chance of the health service recovering the cash.
Portsmouth Hospital Trust saw one illegal immigrant run up a bill of £181,000 while one hospital wrote off a huge £5.1million for treating overseas patients.
Professor Dalgleish said: “What is the point of making all these terrible cuts to services when you’re not chasing the money you’re owed?
“I know of very ill individuals who’ve arrived for treatment from other countries and gone straight into intensive care costing thousands of pounds a day.”
Elsewhere a Ghanaian man wracked up a bill of £42,000 but was deported before paying it – meaning East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust picked up the tab.
The Professor added: “When I started in cancer treatment a course of drugs cost around £1,000. Now it’s £60,000 to £100,000.
“The cost is huge. No other healthcare system in the world could cope with it and the abuse of this system must be stopped.”
MigrationWatch UK chairman Lord Green also condemned the exploitation of the struggling health care system.
He said: “This is further evidence that the NHS is wide open to people who have no right to use it and make no contribution towards its costs.”
The cost of treating foreign nationals who failed to pay for their treatment made up a small chunk of the £61million written off by the NHS in 2015.
The investigation also found that Barts Health Trust, in East London, lost £286,000 from overseas patients not coughing up, with Royal Berkshire losing £136,000 on one foreign patient.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “We are determined to make sure our NHS isn’t abused.”
She added: "We were the first to introduce tough measures to clamp down on migrants accessing care and we are now focused on extending charging to other areas of healthcare, expecting to recover up to £500 million a year by 2018 from visitors using the NHS."
http://i.imgur.com/UGdqqcT.jpg
MILLIONS of pounds is being frittered away by the National Health Service (NHS) on treating migrants and illegal immigrants, an expert has warned.
Professor Angus Dalgleish revealed no healthcare system in the world could cope with footing the bill for those who deliberately swerve paying for care in the UK.
The cancer specialist lashed out the state of the NHS as it was revealed taxpayers' money is being wasted on cases where there is no chance of the health service recovering the cash.
Portsmouth Hospital Trust saw one illegal immigrant run up a bill of £181,000 while one hospital wrote off a huge £5.1million for treating overseas patients.
Professor Dalgleish said: “What is the point of making all these terrible cuts to services when you’re not chasing the money you’re owed?
“I know of very ill individuals who’ve arrived for treatment from other countries and gone straight into intensive care costing thousands of pounds a day.”
Elsewhere a Ghanaian man wracked up a bill of £42,000 but was deported before paying it – meaning East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust picked up the tab.
The Professor added: “When I started in cancer treatment a course of drugs cost around £1,000. Now it’s £60,000 to £100,000.
“The cost is huge. No other healthcare system in the world could cope with it and the abuse of this system must be stopped.”
MigrationWatch UK chairman Lord Green also condemned the exploitation of the struggling health care system.
He said: “This is further evidence that the NHS is wide open to people who have no right to use it and make no contribution towards its costs.”
The cost of treating foreign nationals who failed to pay for their treatment made up a small chunk of the £61million written off by the NHS in 2015.
The investigation also found that Barts Health Trust, in East London, lost £286,000 from overseas patients not coughing up, with Royal Berkshire losing £136,000 on one foreign patient.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “We are determined to make sure our NHS isn’t abused.”
She added: "We were the first to introduce tough measures to clamp down on migrants accessing care and we are now focused on extending charging to other areas of healthcare, expecting to recover up to £500 million a year by 2018 from visitors using the NHS."