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ts Not Passports urged NHS workers to 'challenge staff you see asking a patient for ID', and make formal complaints if they believe that 'harm or discrimination might have occurred' – which could include a patient being told they will be billed.

London GP Jackie Applebee wrote to the Barts Health NHS Trust claiming eligibility checks were 'bringing Border Control into our NHS, and destroying [it] as a universal service, free at the point of use'.

But another GP, George Rae warned: 'NHS funding is not infinite… we will open the door to more people.

The message from the BMA is, 'Come to the UK, get on the plane, get on the boat… you will get treatment on the NHS for nothing.'

But at the BMA conference Dr Applebee, who proposed the motion to abolish foreign patient charges, said there was 'no evidence the NHS is going to become the SOS for the whole world'. She added: 'We are a rich country – we can afford this.'

Astonishing litany of six-figure NHS bills all left unpaid- including the Birmingham hospital owed £419,934 thanks to a man from the UAE who got a £120,000 kidney transplant for FREE
By Stephen Adams for the Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday has unearthed a litany of astonishing cases where six-figure bills for NHS treatment have gone unpaid by foreign patients not entitled to free care.

Until now, such examples were thought to be rare, but our investigation has forced NHS trusts to divulge that the full scale is far greater than previously imagined.

Breathtaking cases of unpaid bills at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Birmingham include a mystery patient who racked up £419,933.68.
The sum is equivalent to the income tax paid by 123 average workers in a year.

Two years on, nothing has been paid back.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust refused to say what the bill was for, or where the patient was from.

Other huge bills at QEH include £205,751.55 in 2016, £276,789.54 in 2017 – both written off – and £233,718.55 in 2019, for which nothing has been paid back.

In all, QEH has invoiced 14 overseas visitor patients more than £100,000 since April 2014, and on every occasion, not a penny has been recouped.

Five were written off while nine remain outstanding. The trust said it would 'pursue all reasonable avenues to recover debts'.

Bills could be written off if the patient has died, was 'a destitute illegal migrant' or 'is genuinely without access to funds'.

One bill for critical care at Pennine Acute Trust in Manchester came to £335,850.46. To date, £2.469.14 has been paid back. The trust would provide no other details about the patient.
Critical care covers 'life threatening, but treatable conditions, such as patients who have had a serious accident, heart attack, stroke or sepsis', said a spokesman.

He added that the trust had a process to 'maximise the income we can recover from overseas patients who are not entitled to free NHS services'.

These included three cases of paediatric cardiac surgery or transplantation – one for a boy from outside Europe totalling £268,741.59, which was written off.

A spokesman said: 'If someone who is not entitled to NHS care is transferred to our hospitals requiring urgent, necessary treatment, we would never refuse them.

'Like other NHS organisations, we take a variety of steps to recover the costs of medical treatment and in many cases are successful.'

Unlike some other NHS trusts, the Royal Brompton provided full details to our enquiry. In four £100,000-plus cases, debts have been repaid.

A UHCW spokesman said it was 'unable to comment on specific cases' but there were 'a wide variety of reasons as to why we may not be able to collect payment'.

A Singaporean man was billed £197,888.76 for intensive care and rehabilitation – after he absconded following treatment.
The 'gravely ill' man travelled to Britain specifically for help at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, said an NHS spokeswoman, where he 'spent over 12 months taking advantage of NHS services'.

Specialists saved his life. He gave the impression that he was resettling in the UK,

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