Overseas patients cost Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals £68,000
Shropshire hospitals have had to stump up more than £68,000 to treat overseas patients who were not eligible for NHS care over the past four years, new figures released today reveal.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SATH) spent just over £186,308 treating patients who were not entitled to use the NHS from 2013 to 2017.
The trust was reimbursed for £118,150 of this leaving the taxpayer to find the remaining £68,158.
The figures also revealed that over the past two years, a total of 33 patients from outside the EU were treated at hospitals in the county, 20 of whom were not eligible for free NHS care.
The most expensive years for the tax-payer were 2014/15, when the trust failed to recover the cost of treatments totalling £26,455, and 2015/16 when it rose to £35,098.
However, the figure has fallen substantially in recent months. Since November 2, the trust has treated four non-EU patients at a cost of £11,117, but has recovered £9,228 leaving a shortfall of just £1,889.
The Taxpayers' Alliance said bills would inevitably come at the cost of local patients.
John O'Connell, chief executive of the alliance, said that while hospitals should not turn away patients who needed emergency treatment, hospitals need to do more to recover the cost of the care afterwards.
He said: "At a time when health bosses are saying they're strapped for cash it's absolutely imperative that more is done to recoup costs.
"Those in need of emergency care while in Britain should get treatment but these are significant sums of taxpayers' money that end up being written off.
"The trust have done quite well so far in recouping a lot of the money they are owed but clearly there is still more to do.
"Every pound that is not recovered in unpaid bills is a pound that can't go towards front line care."
Shropshire and Telford Hospital Trust spokesman David Burrows said: "The trust has always actively pursued all overseas debt and refers outstanding debts to a third party collection agent."
