An undisclosed health tourist has racked up Britain’s biggest ever unpaid NHS bill after leaving a hospital with a debt of more than £530,000, MailOnline has reported.
The unnamed patient, who is from outside the EU, received treatment from a Manchester hospital last year.
Hospital bosses have cited ‘patient confidentiality’ and have not revealed which country they are from, their age or gender.
It comes as health tourism continues to cost the NHS around £2billion a year after doctors up and down the country provide treatment for non-EU residents.
The latest incident means the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was left with a debt of £532,498.
READ: Benue: 71 people killed in week of violence
Freedom of Information laws has revealed that the figure is £30,000 more than the previous highest health tourist debt.
The previous highest bill for a NHS health tourist was a 43-year-old Nigerian mother named Priscilla gave birth to quadruplets at London’s Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in November 2016.
She had intended to give birth where her family members live in Chicago, US, but she was turned away by border officials.
So she instead chose to fly to Heathrow Airport and gave birth in London – and the hospital had to chase of a bill of more than £500,000 after all of the treatment.
Priscilla, a healthcare worker, gave birth to four babies. One sadly died after birth while another, a girl called Deborah, passed away just days after being born.
The rise of health tourist debt has prompted the government to make plans to introduce new laws to prevent similar cases from happening again.
Theresa May is hoping to get back £500million every year and the new measure will mean patients from outside the EU will have to pay before certain operations.
St Bart’s hospital in London is still owed £349,131 from one patient and Guy’s and Thomas’s, also in London, is chasing a bill of £317,898.
Meanwhile, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals in east London and trying to get £157,378 from parents of one-year-old twins who went to the hospital.
An Indian man, 66, was treated for pancreatitis at the London North West Healthcare NHS Trust and owes the trust £122,632.
