So much for the crackdown on ‘health tourists’! NHS hospitals have lost a whopping £180 million in the last five years – the equivalent of £100,000 a day

Cash-strapped NHS hospitals have lost more than £180 million to ‘health tourists’ since a government vowed to crack down on the scandal.

Freedom of Information data obtained by MailOnline shows that NHS services are losing the equivalent of £100,000 a day due to unpaid care bills.

Critics say the money lost could have paid for the equivalent of 6,000 nurses, 5,500 trainee doctors or 30,000 hip replacements.

Although visitors to Britain can access urgent and emergency NHS treatment, they are expected to pay for it.

Last year the NHS wrote off £36 million in debt from health tourists – double the £16 million recorded in 2017, the year the Department of Health issued strict new guidelines telling staff to bill patients before meeting most treatments were started.

London’s NHS trusts suffered the biggest write-offs, the FOI revealed, with Barts Health NHS alone responsible for £31 million of the amount lost over the past five years.

Fellow London trusts King’s College Hospital Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust had bills of £15.2 million and £13.3 million respectively.

Some individual patients have previously left NHS bills worth £500,000 unpaid.

This includes a Nigerian woman who gave birth to quadruplets after giving birth shortly after landing at Heathrow.

Priscilla, then 43, planned to fly to Chicago to have her babies but was turned away by US officials who claimed she would not be able to afford health care costs.

Two died shortly afterwards because they were so premature. The other two, Elijah and Esther, spent weeks in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, racking up a large bill.

Experts also fear that the published total is just the tip of the iceberg, as it only represents cases where invoices were generated and then not paid.

They suspect that in many cases, NHS officials have never issued bills to health tourists because they believe there is little success in getting them paid.

It is planned that NHS hospitals will charge patients who do not live in Britain a rate of 150 percent of what it would normally cost the health service to carry out a procedure normally.

For example, a hip replacement is estimated to cost the NHS £6,000, but would theoretically cost an overseas visitor £9,000 under the above rules.

Patients requiring emergency care will still be charged, but will be billed after any medical care is required.

These rules apply to both foreign travelers visiting Britain and non-resident British citizens, for example expats returning home to visit family.

Government modeling ahead of the crackdown, published by then Health Secretary and now Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, estimated that more consistent charging of foreign patients using NHS services would save the country an additional £500 million.

But according to a National Audit Office report, the money raised would fall far short of that target.

While the Tories announced a crackdown on health tourists in 2017, they reiterated their commitment to ending the practice in 2019.

Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 election manifesto said: ‘We will clamp down on health tourism and ensure that those from abroad who use NHS services pay their fair share.

‘And we will increase the NHS surcharge paid by people from abroad.’

Alp Mehmet, chairman of campaign group Migrationwatch UK, said MailOnline’s “sobering” figures showed a lack of progress in tackling the problem.

‘Total costs could indeed be higher; “if only the NHS would make more of an effort to recover costs from those not entitled to free treatment,” he said.

“Ultimately, these enormous costs are borne by hard-pressed taxpayers. This is downright unfair.”

London mayoral reform candidate Howard Cox called for more government action on spending that is costing the capital’s hospitals millions.

“Our powerless and financially incompetent management within the NHS and government seem to know how to stop the continuing unpaid amounts, and as always, all at the expense of the taxpayer,” he said.

‘With hospitals allegedly in financial trouble and under so much pressure, it is time for Victoria Atkins, Secretary of State for Health, to negotiate with the governments from which most of these freeloaders come, to seek fair and appropriate compensation for the care they have received.

“Otherwise, let’s adopt the American system and check their valid health insurance first before getting any medical care at all.

“Now that approach could well stem the flow of villains visiting our long-suffering hospitals.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘Every taxpayer supports the health service and it is only right that overseas visitors contribute to their treatment costs.

‘Between 2015/16 and 2021/22, more than £4 billion in income from overseas visitors was reported.

‘To improve recovery of costs, non-urgent NHS care should be paid for in advance and any debts arising from the provision of urgent care should be pursued before payment.

‘To encourage payment, anyone applying for a new visa who has an outstanding debt to the NHS may have their application refused and therefore not allowed to return to Britain until the debt is paid in full.’

While health tourists have to pay for most NHS treatments, some are free for all.

These include attending the emergency department for an assessment, but this does not include subsequent treatment, family planning services excluding abortions or IVF, and treatment for diseases that could infect the general public.

Any treatment for injuries and conditions caused by torture, mutilation or domestic or sexual violence that occurred in England will also not be charged, although those who come to Britain specifically for treatment in these areas will still have to pay.