Nigerian patients are among the biggest debtors who owe the British NHS up to £219m

NIGERIAN patients are among the big debtors who owe the British National Health Service (NHS) a total of £219m which has accumulated from health tourists from over 155 nations over the last two years.

Apparently, these unpaid bills involve international patients having had maternity care, cancer treatment and heart surgery courtesy of UK taxpayers.  In total. they owe about £138m to 98 health trusts with a further £80m written off over the past two years in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Parliament today, MPs called for an end to the NHS being treated as an international health service when it faces spiralling costs, huge waiting lists and crippling strike action. Visitors from Nigeria ran up the biggest debts, owing £6.1m, while Indian nationals owe £3.1m, Romanians £2.5m, Jamaicans £2.2m and Americans £2m.

One single patient from Morocco has dodged a £333,000 bill for undisclosed treatment, while another from Sierra Leone did not pay £294,000. Looking at the breakdown, the highest bills are for maternity services, representing a total of £19m, followed by £2.2m for obstetrics care. 

An NHS report warned last August that foreign citizens were travelling to the UK with the specific intent of using maternity services without paying the typical £7,000 fee. According to the NHS's Counter Fraud Authority, pregnant women were likely to use a false identity or leave the UK soon after giving birth.

Barts Hospital in London is owed £4.3m for maternity care, £84,000 more than Lewisham and Greenwich, also in the capital. Barts also has one of the highest overall bills from foreign nationals, with £13.4m left unpaid, while Imperial College, which has £15m missing, tops the list.

Also in London, Guy's and St Thomas' is owed £8.3m and King's College £7.8m, including £300,000 from a patient from India, £125,000 from Russians and £87,000 from Americans. Northern Care Alliance in Greater Manchester has a black hole of £5.6m, while North Bristol NHS Trust is owed £4.9m by visitors from 78 countries including £118,000 from Albanians, £152,000 from Bulgarians and £687,000 from Romanians. 

A Nigerian mother who gave birth to quadruplets in the UK admitted she could not afford the £500,000 bill. This 43-year-old, known only as Priscilla, appeared on the BBC2 show Hospital when she gave birth at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in west London, part of Imperial College Hospital.

Sadly, only two of the babies survived and both required treatment in intensive care, costing £20,000 a week. The 2017 show captured the moment she was told she could not receive free treatment.

Priscilla underwent IVF treatment and was told by her doctor to fly to the US to have her babies as Nigerian hospitals do not have the 'facilities to cater for the children. However, she was turned away at the US border because officials feared she would not be able to afford the hospital bills and on her way back to Nigeria, she stopped over in London and began having contractions.

More than £8.8m is owed by patients whose nationality is unknown because some trusts fail to record the information, prompting questions over how they will ever recoup the lost income. Citizens from wealthy countries including the US, Canada and Australia also ranked high among those with unpaid bills, owing a combined total of £2.4m.