I read the article 'health tourists' owe NHS £500k' (Argus, March 13) and then decided to have a look at the Argus website.
I can’t say I was too surprised to see that all the contributions were anti-foreigner, ‘benefit tourism’, and worse.
A few points occurred to me. For instance, what proportion of the total NHS trusts budgets (of many millions) does £500k represent?
The Government has used ‘benefit tourism’ as an anti immigrant weapon for many years, but despite being asked, refuses to produce figures to justify what many people think is a complete myth.
I then considered whether UK citizens, when abroad, ever failed to pay their hospital bills.
Common sense would suggest this does happen, doesn’t it?
And then, I considered my own experience of health treatment for my daughter in Ireland – a hospital visit for which there should have been a charge, and a GP visit – I only had to pay for the prescription.
Whilst everyone, and we are foreigners and ‘health tourists’ when out of the UK, should pay up, perhaps we ought to accept that goodwill and care trumps a political campaign over a few unpaid bills, wherever and whoever you are.
Alex Knutsen
Unison Town Hall
Brighton
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