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Tourists cost Sheffield hospitals almost £300,000 claim
OVERSEAS patients owe hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid bills to Sheffield's adult hospital it was claimed today.
Figures reported in a national newspaper today claim to show that Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has outstanding debts totalling 296,586 from foreign patients not entitled to treatment on the NHS.
The Trust, which runs the Royal Hallamshire, Northern General, Weston Park, Jessop Wing and Charles Clifford Dental hospitals, has been named as the tenth worst hospitals trust in the UK for unpaid bills for NHS treatment for overseas visitors from 2005.
Overall health tourism is costing the NHS 9 million in unpaid bills, the newspaper claims. It gathered the figures under the Freedom of Information Act.
It is not clear why people are not paying for treatment in Sheffield.
But in London, hospitals say large bills have been run up by pregnant women coming to Britain from overseas to give birth - then going home without paying.
The news comes at a time when Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is having to make efficiency savings of 90 million over the next three years to reach Government efficiency targets.
A spokesman for the trust said they were looking into the claims.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
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