ID cards could tackle 'health tourists'

A strong signal that identity cards will have to be shown by people seeking NHS treatment was given by a senior health minister today.

John Hutton said ministers were looking at the move as part of a purge on so-called health tourism which is costing hospitals millions of pounds a year.

He was announcing an interim package of tougher measures designed to stop foreigners and failed asylum seekers milking the health service for expensive treatments to which they are not entitled.

Mr Hutton said he knew of a foreign Wimbledon sports commentator who brought his son to the UK while he was working at the tennis tournament to obtain a free operation on the NHS. "He came to this country to commentate and brought his son with him specifically to obtain free NHS care," said the minister.

"NHS trusts are telling us there are a number of loopholes in the rules and that is why we are tightening them today."

The clampdown includes a ban on failed asylum seekers claiming routine treatments and surgery at hospitals if they have lived in the UK for more than a year.

Foreign businessmen will be banned from claiming operations at the British taxpayers' expense unless they can prove they are full-time residents and have a proper employment contract that bases them in the UK.

Tougher rules will apply to their families to close a loophole under which temporary workers and freelances have been bringing wives and children to Britain whenever they need treatment that would have to be paid for at home.

But Mr Hutton confirmed that a bigger purge was being planned in future to cover family doctors and that it might include using identity cards to make patients prove their entitlement to use the NHS.

"The Government has produced proposals for moving forward on that," he said. "There's a strong and compelling case for tightening the rules." Mr Hutton said nobody needing emergency treatment for a life-threatening condition would be turned away from a hospital, regardless of their status.

The problem is mainly based in London and other big cities where businessmen and travellers fly in and out with ease.

In one example, the wife of a businessman who had temporary employment in Britain flew to London only days before she was due to give birth and turned up at a London hospital which had no choice but to admit her. She flew home shortly after the birth.

No official figures have been produced on the total cost around the country but it is thought to run into hundreds of millions of pounds. Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox accused the Government of being too slow to get tough. He repeated Tory calls for an NHS "entitlement card" to crack down on bogus claimants.

"Our taxpayers have contributed to the NHS and they should have first call on its resources," he said.

Dr Fox criticised as unfair government plans to ban British pensioners who retire abroad from flying home when they need hospital care.

He said: "This is saying that British citizens who have contributed for years cannot use the NHS but that French tourists who come over here can use the NHS for free under European laws."