£40,000 medical costs of overseas visitors in Shropshire

The trust which runs Shropshire's two main hospitals is owed more than £40,000 from foreign patients needing treatment in the region, new figures have shown.

Although people from abroad are never refused emergency treatment, costs are not covered by the NHS and have to be chased up retrospectively.

For the five years from 2010 to 2015, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is owned £43,410 by foreign patients from NHS treatment.

Neil Nisbet, finance director at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We endeavour to do everything we can to recover money that it is owed for the treatment of foreign nationals who are not eligible for free care.

"For planned treatments, fees are usually paid in advance, but this is not always possible in emergency situations.

"The trust has an annual turnover of £310 million. In the 2013/14 financial year, £5,000 remained un-recovered from treating such cases."

Nearly 100 trusts provided data under a Freedom of Information Act, revealing a total unpaid debt from foreign patients of more than £62.8m between 2010 and 2015.

However, more than 40 trusts failed to provide any figures.

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – one of the trusts that has devoted resources to identifying overseas visitors who are not entitled to free care – has established that it is owed £17.9m from the past five years, but is still finalising figures for this year.

One patient at King's College Hospital ran up a bill of £207,482 for renal therapy between 2010 and 2013. At the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust one overseas patient has been receiving dialysis since 2008 and has an unpaid bill so far of £171,626.

The biggest unpaid bill in the figures provided was £428,103 for the treatment of a haemophiliac patient between 2011 and 2014 at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. The same trust also provided chemotherapy costing £126,053 in 2013 and 2014 for a foreign patient who has not paid the bill.

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has provided a bone marrow transplant for a foreign patient with the unpaid bill totalling £148,950.