Economics -
'Tourists' ripping-off the
NHS
By Oliver Harvey
The
world’s sick are flocking to use the NHS,
and we're paying for them. Thousands of
foreigners are travelling to Britain to cash in
on our free health care. These people, dubbed
health tourists, are jumping the queue for
treatment, clogging up our hospitals and pushing
ordinary people further down the waiting lists.
Many of these foreigners, such as asylum seekers
and immigrants, have a perfect right to
treatment. But the already overloaded system is
being made worse by cheats who have “no
entitlement to free health care”, according
to new research. The report, published by
independent think tank the Centre For Policy
Studies, blames “institutional failure at
the heart of the NHS”.
Author Harriet Sergeant spent two months in
London hospitals and clinics talking to nurses,
doctors, managers, asylum seekers and illegal
immigrants by promising them anonymity. She was
told health tourists run up bills of £50,000 and
upwards. The manager of an A&E (accident and
emergency) department at one London hospital told
her, “If the English taxpayer knew how many
overseas visitors we treated, they would be
horrified. In my casualty department, one in 20
people should not be there – and that does
not include asylum seekers and refugees. I get no
funding for them. We are very frightened to stand
up and say that this is a fact." Asylum
expert Harriet said, “Most of the
consultants I spoke to are angry. It is not a
national problem but an inner city one,
particularly London. They are having to devote
their time and energy to people they do not
believe are entitled to it. Many are arriving
through A&E which means British citizens who
have been on the waiting list for months are put
back again, even though they have paid their
taxes.”
The report, No System To Abuse: Immigration And
Health Care In The UK, says there is a growing
number of people arriving who have a right to
free healthcare on the NHS. These include people
on work permits, student visas and asylum
seekers, along with their dependants. All asylum
seekers who have an illness for which they cannot
get treatment in their own country have under
Human Rights legislation the right to stay in
this country and receive free treatment. A record
110,000 asylum seekers entered Britain last year.
But cheats beat the system to claim specialist
treatment by simply presenting themselves at a
hospital’s casualty department. Another
method is by referral from a GP.
An undercover reporter posing as a Moldovan
refugee was offered free health care without
being checked. He was handed a form saying:
“Asylum seekers may obtain free medical care
from their local doctor under the National Health
Service.” Despite having no ID, he was told
a doctor would visit him at the asylum centre
where he was housed. The report reveals the
system is out of control because no one is
charting the vast numbers of people receiving NHS
care while not entitled to it.
One consultant told Harriet, “Today, I am
operating on a rich person from the Third World
who has come through A&E as an emergency. I
had to cancel the operation I was meant to
perform on the poor, elderly Caribbean who has
waited six months for his operation, is a citizen
of this country and has paid taxes all his life.
Tell me the morality in that.” Cheats
usually claim to have lived here for 12 months to
beat NHS rules. But one hospital receptionist
told Harriet, “We don’t check anyone.
How could we? You can call yourself Mickey Mouse
and give an address in Disneyland.”
And one A&E manager said, “Relatives of
families already living here fly over and use
their uncle or cousin’s address. Some with
chronic conditions come backwards and forwards on
six-month visas for treatment. Women are coming
over all the time from the Third World to give
birth on the NHS. The abuse is blatant.”
A&E is only meant to offer treatment for an
ailment arising in the UK. But one consultant
said, “They arrive at Heathrow, take a taxi
to my A&E and are referred to us with
illnesses like chronic leukaemia, HIV infection
or renal failure. They are coming here
deliberately.”
Harriet said, “While the numbers of people
involved are impossible to estimate, it is clear
the system is open to abuse through both GPs and
the A&E departments of major hospitals. To
the determined health tourist, both routes are
easy to navigate. One senior consultant put the
figure, including asylum seekers and refugees, at
20 per cent of patients on his inner city ward
round.” The research also underlines shock
levels of dangerous diseases fuelled by
immigrants. In London, the rates of TB have
doubled in 15 years, while in the last four
years, 95 per cent of all new cases of Hepatitis
B have arrived from abroad. In 2002, African
immigration overtook gay sex as the main cause of
HIV in Britain. One doctor said,
“Ninety-five per cent of our HIV patients
are now heterosexual and from Africa.”
Some psychiatric doctors claim half of acute
psychiatric beds in London are taken by
foreigners. Like HIV, insanity is grounds for a
successful claim for asylum. Harriet says health
tourists are coming from countries with where
contagious life threatening diseases are rife.
She says, “I’ve lived in the Third
World and people there cannot believe a system
where health treatment comes free. I spoke to one
immigrant who had a congenital heart defect and a
woman with HIV. They were told they would die
unless they came to Britain for treatment. You
cannot blame them. Anyone would do the same.
It’s the system at fault.” She added,
“Applicants from Eastern Europe and the
Third World receive two- thirds of student visas,
and most work permits. Unfortunately, TB,
Hepatitis B and HIV are all endemic there. They
are contagious, life-threatening diseases and are
now taking hold in the UK.”
Harriet’s report also highlights the plight
of overworked NHS staff. One nurse said, “We
have hundreds of asylum seekers arriving every
quarter into our borough, but the number of GPs
stays the same. The number of hours they work
stays the same. So what is meant to give?”
The report calls for research to find the true
cost to the NHS of asylum seekers, health
tourists and other immigrants. It also suggests
that the costs of treating health tourists should
be recovered. Harriet also wants health tests
carried out before immigration from countries
with a high rate of contagious disease. The
Department of Health denied foreigners were given
preferential treatment.
A spokesman said, “Our role is to ensure
equitable access to the NHS for all those
entitled to it. A person who has applied for
permission to take refuge here can use NHS
services free of charge. Asylum seekers
don’t receive preferential treatment. Like
those normally resident in the UK, they will have
to pay certain statutory NHS charges, unless they
also qualify for exemption from these, and will
have to go on NHS waiting lists.” But
Harriet said, “NHS tourism is Britain’s
new growth industry. The Home Office and the
Department of Health have ducked the issue. The
system for weeding out those with no right to
treatment is in chaos.”
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