NHS failing to hit target for charging 'health tourists'

The NHS is on course to miss its target to recoup £500m every year spent treating migrant patients.

The "ambitious" target for reducing the cost of treating overseas patients not entitled to free healthcare was announced by the Department of Health in 2014 to counter claims the NHS was being "overly generous".

But a National Audit Office (NAO) study says hospital trusts in England are failing to identify EU migrants who should be charged for treatment and staff face "particular challenges" collecting payment from patients from the rest of the world.

Just £289m was collected in 2015-16, half of which came from 10 acute and specialist trusts in London, while a further eight trusts failed to charge migrant patients outside Europe anything at all.

While some were found to have a team working specifically on collecting payments, four trusts had no designated "health tourism" staff at all.

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Estimates from 2012-2013 suggest £367m should have been charged to foreign patients - but only £49m was asked for, and by 2017-18 it is anticipated just £295m will be recovered annually - a shortfall of 41% from the £500m target.

A survey this year revealed 42% of hospital doctors and 55% of hospital nurses did not know some people were not entitled to 'free' healthcare, the report said.

The head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, said: "Hospital trusts remain some way from complying in full with the requirement to charge and recover the cost of treating overseas visitors.

"In the past two years, the amounts charged and amounts actually recovered have increased. Much of this increase is the result of changes to the charging rules.

"If current trends continue and the charging rules remain the same, the department will not achieve its ambition of recovering up to £500m of overseas visitor income a year by 2017-18 and faces a potential shortfall in the region of £150m."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "This Government was the first to put in place measures to ensure the NHS isn't abused, and as this report finds, we are making very good progress - the amount of income recovered has already more than trebled in three years to £289m.

"We consulted earlier this year on extending the charging of migrants and visitors using the NHS to other areas of healthcare.

"We will set out further steps in due course to ensure we deliver on our objective to recover £500m a year by the middle of this Parliament."