Temporary migrants cost NHS £2bn a year: study

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, will present a new analysis suggesting temporary migrants are costing the NHS up to £2bn a year, and arguing this could be reduced by a quarter through a charge on new arrivals, better enforcement of the current rules and discouraging people from abusing the system.

The department of health commissioned the research after a political row erupted this year over how much health tourism costs the UK.

Hunt was heavily criticised for claiming that it cost the taxpayer significantly more than £200mn a year, while the NHS had only recorded £33mn of charges to foreign nationals, of which £12mn was written off.

Hunt will claim that the analysis by Creative Research is vindication of his figures, as MPs prepare to debate the new immigration bill. This will impose a £200 surcharge on temporary migrants coming to Britain for six to 12 months, paid when they arrive, to help cover the cost of their medical care.

Creative Research said this would raise about £200mn a year. The report says the cost of immigrants who are already in Britain but not eligible for free treatment is £388mn.

Hunt is appointing a new NHS director of costs, Sir Keith Pearson, to help the health service get better at charging this group of immigrants for treatment.

The research estimates that the taxpayer will save between £70mn and £300mn because the government’s tougher approach to discouraging health tourists will deter many trying to get free treatment in Britain.

“These independent reports prove this is a serious problem that the government was right to address,” said Hunt. “We are confident our new measures will make the NHS fairer and more sustainable for the British families and taxpayers it was set up to serve.”

The claims were challenged by Labour, and doctors raised concerns that GPs did not have the capacity to act as border guards monitoring patients’ immigration status.

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, dismissed Hunt’s initiative, saying GPs “must not be the Border Agency”, adding: “You are more likely to be cared for by an immigrant than encounter a health tourist in the queue.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said there was “limited evidence to suggest that migrants or short-term visitors are consuming large parts of the NHS budget”.

“The government’s estimates are based on a number of assumptions that result in a figure significantly higher than previous estimates,” he said. “GPs and other healthcare professionals do not have the capacity or the resources to administer an extended charging system that could require GPs to extensively vet every single patient when they register with a new practice”.