NHS boards failing to claim back hundreds of thousands for EU treatment

0 Paul Gray: ‘We should recover money where we can’ Health boards in Scotland are missing out on potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds by not claiming back money due for treating noneuropean citizens, a Holyrood committee has heard.

Under a scheme introduced by the Department of Health in 2014, health boards and NHS trusts across the UK that report the number of interna- tional patients they treat, who are ineligible for free healthcare on the NHS, would be reimbursed for 25 per cent of the costs.

Five health boards – Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire and Western Isles – have failed to report the numbers and risk losing out on sums that would be paid to them by the DWP.

The Scottish Parliament’s health committee was told the UK Government-run programme was seen by some as being “overly bureaucratic” and did not necessarily prove to be cost-effective.

NON-UK citizens visiting from the European Economic Area region are entitled to free healthcare under reciprocal arrangements covered by the European Healthcare Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme.

In submissions made before the committee hearing yesterday, it was stated health boards in Scotland had recovered just over half of the £4 million spent on treatment for international patients between April 2013 and March last year.

NHS Scotland chief executive Paul Gray told MSPS he would speak to health board bosses seeking to clarify whether any sources of funding were being overlooked.

“The culture of the NHS in Scotland is to provide care to people who need it and almost, ask questions later and I’m not ashamed of that,” he said.

“I think we should recover money where we legitimately can and we should observe the regulations and provisions that are in place.

“The NHS in Scotland should not do without money that it legitimately has access to.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which did not participate in the scheme until this year, recovered as much as £120,000 during one quarter, having re-evaluated its procedures.