Health tourists who treat hospitals like a charity cost UK taxpayers millions of pounds and we should spend more time treating those entitled to free care
We should welcome new initiative which means hospitals spend less time chasing foreign freeloaders for payment
A good start
PREPARE the outrage bus. Ready the angry petitions and demonstrations.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced overseas patients will be charged up front for NHS care unless their case is life-threatening.
Those who can’t pay will be turned away. Left-wing campaigners and hand-wringing doctors will no doubt protest and accuse the Government of xenophobia and abandoning the sick.
But health tourists who treat hospitals like a charity cost UK taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
Meanwhile Brits who have spent their lives paying into the NHS are denied life-saving drugs or forced onto mixed-sex wards and makeshift beds because the health service is cash-strapped.
If this new initiative means hospitals spend less time chasing foreign freeloaders for payment and more time treating those entitled to free care it should be welcomed.
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