Dedworth
23rd October 2013, 21:55
Good piece in todays paper :-
For years those who warned about the true cost of health tourism have been called racists. Now the truth is out
Earlier this week, I received a letter from a hospital nurse who has worked in the National Health Service for three decades.
Written with evident emotion, it talked of a scandal covered up by Left-wing doctors and politicians who shout down anyone daring to protest about it.
The letter said: ‘When I began work in South London, 95 per cent of my patients were from the local population.
'Today, that percentage has shrunk to less than 20 per cent on children’s wards and less than 40 per cent on adult wards.
‘The impact of health tourists and migrants has been catastrophic for the NHS.
'The pressure on those who work in the health service has also increased as they try to cope with thousands upon thousands of patients from all over the world who come to Britain wanting — and getting — free treatment.’
Yesterday, the nurse, Peter Murray — who won an award as the top agency nurse in the country a few years ago — was proved right.
A report commissioned by the Government on foreign visitors and short-term migrants treated in the NHS reveals that their care is costing a staggering £2 billion a year, a massive squandering of resources in these austere times.
The report said that £388 million is wasted on foreign patients who should pay for their beds, medicines and nursing, but are never charged.
Worse, another £300 million disappears on caring for relatives of migrants who audaciously turn up here on holiday visits purely to get free treatment, knowing that the chances of being given a medical bill are almost zero.
Not before time, the Government says it plans a new annual health levy of £150 on foreign students and £200 on temporary migrants to use the NHS, in the hope of reducing health tourism.
It wants a watertight system that will identify those who should pay and make them hand over the money.
By doing so, it hopes to save £500 million a year — enough to pay the salaries of more than 4,000 extra doctors.
As Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said this week: ‘It’s time for action to ensure the NHS is a national health service and not an international health service.
‘The NHS is the envy of the world, but we must make sure it is fair to the hard-working British taxpayers who fund it.’
Needless to say, the cries of derision from the usual suspects were loud and immediate.
The Guardian called the plan an ‘assault’ on health tourists.
The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, said the levy system will cost more to set up than it will recoup.
Both Andy Burnham, the Shadow Health Minister, and Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, suggested it would force doctors to become immigration police.
We have heard this kind of argument before from the medical profession and sections of the Labour Party who calculatedly turn a blind eye to one of the biggest scandals of modern times.
Those who have been brave enough to blow the whistle on health tourism have been called racists or, if they work in the NHS, have even been threatened with the sack for speaking out.
Earlier this year, the Mail published a series of articles by eminent consultant Professor J. Meirion Thomas, of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
Courageously, he stated the truth: that there is a ‘massive and escalating problem’ of foreigners travelling to Britain to exploit the NHS.
Expectant mothers, he said, are flying here just to give birth, while others are arriving for treatment for cancer and HIV, kidney transplants and even, believe it or not, infertility treatment, before leaving hospitals without paying.
The size of our postbag from readers endorsing his views ran into thousands. Even a cursory reading of those letters makes it clear that the Professor was not exaggerating.
For 13 years I’ve been exposing the strain health tourism has been inflicting on the NHS.
I have learnt of pregnant women turning up at hospitals near Heathrow straight from the airport with tickets still tied to their baggage.
They have come from Africa, South Asia, China and all across the world.
I have written about children with gravely debilitating illnesses who are flown here by their parents and taken to casualty departments, where they are taken in and treated without question, although they might need a lifetime of expensive care, which, of course, will be free to them.
One such child, a girl whose mother arrived here from a Caribbean island when she was 24 weeks pregnant and gave birth prematurely after presenting herself at a Central London hospital, is still — nine years later — receiving specialist medical treatment, and has cost the State more than £1 million.
The girl had weak lungs and trouble breathing because of her very premature birth.
Her mother successfully claimed that her daughter’s human rights would be breached if she was not given the medical care she needed.
One doctor has told me that some scheduled flights from the United Arab Emirates to Manchester are so full of sick people coming to access free treatment at the respected Manchester Royal Infirmary that they are known locally as the ‘MRI planes’.
Other Gulf states now offer discount prices for patients —who often have diabetes, heart complaints, or need liver transplants — to fly to Doha airport to catch the twice-weekly flights to Manchester.
The true scale of how the NHS is being exploited by foreigners is shown by the figures for those who are actually billed, but have still not paid.
Revealed through Freedom of Information requests, they show that the biggest single owed bill for last year was £218,000, relating to the care of an Asian child at the world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Elsewhere, a patient from Saudi Arabia clocked up a bill of £28,881, which is still outstanding, for kidney treatment at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals’ Trust.
And the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ Trust is still waiting to be paid £43,412 for treatment of a patient from Iran who received care and medicines for a neurological problem.
Patients from South and North America, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Africa, Mauritius, Romania, and even France, have left similar bills unpaid.
A year or two ago, at the Imperial College Trust in London, for example, a Nigerian clocked up a bill of £320,000 when she had a baby with complex health problems, and then simply fled with her child.
Dr Peter Graves, chief executive of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Local Medical Committee, which represents 500 doctors, said recently that one of his fellow GPs has ‘thousands of patients on his list who entertain friends and relatives from Pakistan, India and other Asian countries, who come to England for the sole purpose of accessing free health care.
'This is a problem not just here, but across the country.’
The nurse who wrote to me this week, Peter Murray, would agree.
He has also sent his letter to MPs telling them how he has contributed thousands to the NHS through his national insurance payments over several decades and yet — like many Britons — is now refused even basic medical treatment.
‘I recently asked for the removal of a cyst on my forehead, which my GP said he could no longer fund as it is now deemed to be “cosmetic” surgery and too expensive.
‘That is hard to accept when I know that health tourists, who have contributed nothing, are getting free treatment for immensely complex and highly costly medical problems,’ he writes.
Now, at last, with yesterday’s dramatic statement by the Government, a first step has been made towards ensuring the NHS gives priority to those who have paid for it over many years.
Let us hope that the Health Secretary stands firm in his battle to control health tourism.
To do so, he will need to be deaf to the howls of protest from those who think Britons should pay to provide medical treatment for the entire world.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2472315/SUE-REID-For-years-warned-true-cost-health-tourism-called-racists-Now-truth-out.html#ixzz2ia40wDYC
Is it any wonder the worlds parasites regard us as a soft touch :cwm23:
For years those who warned about the true cost of health tourism have been called racists. Now the truth is out
Earlier this week, I received a letter from a hospital nurse who has worked in the National Health Service for three decades.
Written with evident emotion, it talked of a scandal covered up by Left-wing doctors and politicians who shout down anyone daring to protest about it.
The letter said: ‘When I began work in South London, 95 per cent of my patients were from the local population.
'Today, that percentage has shrunk to less than 20 per cent on children’s wards and less than 40 per cent on adult wards.
‘The impact of health tourists and migrants has been catastrophic for the NHS.
'The pressure on those who work in the health service has also increased as they try to cope with thousands upon thousands of patients from all over the world who come to Britain wanting — and getting — free treatment.’
Yesterday, the nurse, Peter Murray — who won an award as the top agency nurse in the country a few years ago — was proved right.
A report commissioned by the Government on foreign visitors and short-term migrants treated in the NHS reveals that their care is costing a staggering £2 billion a year, a massive squandering of resources in these austere times.
The report said that £388 million is wasted on foreign patients who should pay for their beds, medicines and nursing, but are never charged.
Worse, another £300 million disappears on caring for relatives of migrants who audaciously turn up here on holiday visits purely to get free treatment, knowing that the chances of being given a medical bill are almost zero.
Not before time, the Government says it plans a new annual health levy of £150 on foreign students and £200 on temporary migrants to use the NHS, in the hope of reducing health tourism.
It wants a watertight system that will identify those who should pay and make them hand over the money.
By doing so, it hopes to save £500 million a year — enough to pay the salaries of more than 4,000 extra doctors.
As Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said this week: ‘It’s time for action to ensure the NHS is a national health service and not an international health service.
‘The NHS is the envy of the world, but we must make sure it is fair to the hard-working British taxpayers who fund it.’
Needless to say, the cries of derision from the usual suspects were loud and immediate.
The Guardian called the plan an ‘assault’ on health tourists.
The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, said the levy system will cost more to set up than it will recoup.
Both Andy Burnham, the Shadow Health Minister, and Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, suggested it would force doctors to become immigration police.
We have heard this kind of argument before from the medical profession and sections of the Labour Party who calculatedly turn a blind eye to one of the biggest scandals of modern times.
Those who have been brave enough to blow the whistle on health tourism have been called racists or, if they work in the NHS, have even been threatened with the sack for speaking out.
Earlier this year, the Mail published a series of articles by eminent consultant Professor J. Meirion Thomas, of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
Courageously, he stated the truth: that there is a ‘massive and escalating problem’ of foreigners travelling to Britain to exploit the NHS.
Expectant mothers, he said, are flying here just to give birth, while others are arriving for treatment for cancer and HIV, kidney transplants and even, believe it or not, infertility treatment, before leaving hospitals without paying.
The size of our postbag from readers endorsing his views ran into thousands. Even a cursory reading of those letters makes it clear that the Professor was not exaggerating.
For 13 years I’ve been exposing the strain health tourism has been inflicting on the NHS.
I have learnt of pregnant women turning up at hospitals near Heathrow straight from the airport with tickets still tied to their baggage.
They have come from Africa, South Asia, China and all across the world.
I have written about children with gravely debilitating illnesses who are flown here by their parents and taken to casualty departments, where they are taken in and treated without question, although they might need a lifetime of expensive care, which, of course, will be free to them.
One such child, a girl whose mother arrived here from a Caribbean island when she was 24 weeks pregnant and gave birth prematurely after presenting herself at a Central London hospital, is still — nine years later — receiving specialist medical treatment, and has cost the State more than £1 million.
The girl had weak lungs and trouble breathing because of her very premature birth.
Her mother successfully claimed that her daughter’s human rights would be breached if she was not given the medical care she needed.
One doctor has told me that some scheduled flights from the United Arab Emirates to Manchester are so full of sick people coming to access free treatment at the respected Manchester Royal Infirmary that they are known locally as the ‘MRI planes’.
Other Gulf states now offer discount prices for patients —who often have diabetes, heart complaints, or need liver transplants — to fly to Doha airport to catch the twice-weekly flights to Manchester.
The true scale of how the NHS is being exploited by foreigners is shown by the figures for those who are actually billed, but have still not paid.
Revealed through Freedom of Information requests, they show that the biggest single owed bill for last year was £218,000, relating to the care of an Asian child at the world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Elsewhere, a patient from Saudi Arabia clocked up a bill of £28,881, which is still outstanding, for kidney treatment at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals’ Trust.
And the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ Trust is still waiting to be paid £43,412 for treatment of a patient from Iran who received care and medicines for a neurological problem.
Patients from South and North America, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Africa, Mauritius, Romania, and even France, have left similar bills unpaid.
A year or two ago, at the Imperial College Trust in London, for example, a Nigerian clocked up a bill of £320,000 when she had a baby with complex health problems, and then simply fled with her child.
Dr Peter Graves, chief executive of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Local Medical Committee, which represents 500 doctors, said recently that one of his fellow GPs has ‘thousands of patients on his list who entertain friends and relatives from Pakistan, India and other Asian countries, who come to England for the sole purpose of accessing free health care.
'This is a problem not just here, but across the country.’
The nurse who wrote to me this week, Peter Murray, would agree.
He has also sent his letter to MPs telling them how he has contributed thousands to the NHS through his national insurance payments over several decades and yet — like many Britons — is now refused even basic medical treatment.
‘I recently asked for the removal of a cyst on my forehead, which my GP said he could no longer fund as it is now deemed to be “cosmetic” surgery and too expensive.
‘That is hard to accept when I know that health tourists, who have contributed nothing, are getting free treatment for immensely complex and highly costly medical problems,’ he writes.
Now, at last, with yesterday’s dramatic statement by the Government, a first step has been made towards ensuring the NHS gives priority to those who have paid for it over many years.
Let us hope that the Health Secretary stands firm in his battle to control health tourism.
To do so, he will need to be deaf to the howls of protest from those who think Britons should pay to provide medical treatment for the entire world.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2472315/SUE-REID-For-years-warned-true-cost-health-tourism-called-racists-Now-truth-out.html#ixzz2ia40wDYC
Is it any wonder the worlds parasites regard us as a soft touch :cwm23: