NHS Hospital Faces Health Tourism Issue, Expectant Mothers To Show ID Before Receiving NHS Care

Just recently, an NHS hospital revealed £5m bill after a huge number of expectant mothers accessed NHS care, but are not entitled to treatment. It proposed to make women show identification before they could avail maternity care. This is to crack down the health tourism in the NHS.

According to Daily Mail, it was St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London that has set out proposals requiring women who attend hospital to show proof of right before receiving NHS care. Their visa or asylum status will do. The hospital would not ask for the ID of emergency patients.

In the event that the women could not provide identification, they would be endorsed to the Trust's Overseas Patient Team. There, they would undergo specialist document screening.
Reports say there is an increasing number of overseas visitors accessing NHS care even though they are not entitled to treatment. An email in the board papers stated that there are individuals offering paid assistance to expectant mothers in Nigeria to have their babies on the NHS at St George's for free. The Sun reported that 900 foreign expectant mothers were able to use the NHS without paying.

According to Jo Johnson, St George's became a target due to its lack of a robust process of checking eligibility. Non-eligible patients saw it as an easy target. Johnson is the head of private and overseas patients for the trust. The email further stated that non-eligible patients accessing the system have caused the local economy to lose nearly £4.6m each year. Apparently, this is becoming a huge problem concerning health tourism.

While the priority of St George's is to provide treatment and care to patients that need its services, its spokesman said the hospital also has a duty to ensure that resources are wisely used. Therefore, it would need to check the patients' eligibility when accessing non-emergency NHS treatment as it tackles health tourism.