Foreign patients cost Great Ormond Street £30m in unpaid bills

‘The debt remains high’

GrEAT Ormond Street Hospital is chasing more than £30million in unpaid bills after treating patients from overseas, it has been revealed.

Britain’s top children’s hospital said a large proportion of the debt was owed by foreign governments rather than individual families.

Although managers would not reveal details of which countries they are chasing or how many patients have been treated without payment, they said they have taken legal action against one government or embassy to recover £1.5million.

The hospital in central London, which is part of the NHS, is internationally renowned for treating seriously ill children, particularly those suffering from heart disease, cancer, epilepsy and kidney failure. Many governments in less developed countries pay for their patients to be treated at Great Ormond Street, rather than in their own hospitals, as the care is so much better.

While charges for treating patients from outside the European Union do not have to be paid upfront, the fact the trust is chasing so much money raises fresh questions over the NHS’s ability to collect money from overseas patients.

Earlier this year a damning report by the Commons public accounts committee warned that many hospitals were failing to identify foreign patients and send them bills. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in west London admitted it was chasing £500,000 from a Nigerian woman who gave birth to quadruplets shortly after landing at Heathrow Airport.

Details of Great Ormond Street’s situation came to light in a report uncovered by Health Service Journal. It states a large proportion of the debts were past six months due.

‘The debt remains high and expedient recovery remains a key objective for the trust,’ the report adds. The trust said it was recently paid £1.5million owed by Saudi Arabia and £2.7million from Kuwait.

A spokesman for Great Ormond Street Hospital said: ‘Very sick children from more than 90 countries receive private treatment at GOSH, many of whom are sponsored by their government because the specialist care they need is not available in their home country.

‘We have robust guarantees in place with governments and other international organisations to ensure their debt is recoverable and we are taking steps to ensure this is recovered in a more timely manner.’

A public accounts committee report in February noted that Britain was one of the worst in the EU for extracting money from foreign patients.