Crackdown on health tourists

Indeed, it is unclear just how much money the present abuse of the system is costing. According to the Department of Health, the bill for treating foreign nationals in hospital 10 years ago was £200m a year.

But official figures show that last year only £33m was spent on this and two-thirds of that sum was recovered.

Nor is it particularly clear exactly how the Government intends to tackle the problem. Will a healthcare levy be imposed? Will there be a role for private insurance? And will doctors be helped to identify those who are ineligible for treatment?

Of course, considering the number of countries that have developed systems for charging foreigners for their healthcare, there should be no reason why the UK cannot follow suit. But, at the moment, the Health Secretary’s plans appear to amount to little more than good intentions.

Nor would most patients see health tourism as the most pressing problem facing the NHS in any case. Indeed, many of those in rural areas will be wondering what, precisely, is the value of George Osborne’s much-trumpeted ringfenced health spending when funding is being cut for GPs in the countryside in spite of repeated warnings about the future of rural health services.

The Government, however, seems keen to 
give the impression that, with its health reforms underway and the budget protected, all is well with 
the NHS even though precisely the opposite is 
the case.

The continued doubts over the future of the new non-emergency telephone service, for example, is a reminder that patients remain in a state of confusion over how to access primary care.

Yet the greatest complacency of all remains the Government’s woefully inadequate response to the deaths of 1,200 patients at Stafford Hospital and the attempted cover-up of the deaths of 16 babies through neglect at Furness Hospital in Cumbria.

Such complacency is exemplified by the continued failure to hold NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson to full account. As scandals go, this ranks considerably higher than health tourism.

Flood of criticism

WITH the announcement last week of new investment in flood defences and an outline deal with the insurance industry to make sure that homeowners can afford cover, the Government might be tempted to believe it will avoid further criticism of its flood-risk management.

If so, it can think again. As today’s report by MPs makes clear, the measures being taken will simply not be adequate to tackle the risk that Britain is facing.

Irrespective of the theories about future climate development, the unpredictable rainfall patterns of the past few years, which have wrought appalling devastation in various parts of this region, demonstrate that disastrous flooding can strike at any time.

With this scale of threat, complacency is not an option. It is no good Ministers slapping each other on the back and congratulating themselves on the latest investment when there is still no adequate plan for dredging watercourses, meaning that vast swathes of agricultural land lie essentially unprotected, or when the Government has signally failed to win private sector investment in any meaningful quantity.

Indeed, when effective flood-risk management and the protection of businesses is a clear boost to economic growth, there is an obvious argument not only for the private sector to make a substantial contribution, but also for flood protection measures to be given immunity from public sector cuts.

Instead, we have a situation in which spending on the maintenance of defences and watercourses is at its lowest for many years, while flood risk is arguably at its highest.

Full steam ahead

WHEN, for two brief minutes on the afternoon of July 3, 1938, the steam locomotive Mallard reached a record speed of 126mph on the East Coast Main Line, it was hailed as a major advance in passenger transport. Yet few people could ever have imagined that this was a record that would still stand three-quarters of a century later.

But, then again, few could have predicted the twists and turns that railway history in this country would take in that time. Nationalisation, privatisation, the demise of steam, the rise of diesel and now the prospect of high-speed rail at speeds far beyond those achieved by Mallard. All these have come to pass, yet still this remarkable record is honoured, as it was in York yesterday with the coming together of Mallard’s five surviving sister locomotives to commemorate her record-breaking run.

The age of steam may be gone forever, but its fascination endures and there will be few passengers waiting today on the East Coast line who will not be wishing that, when their train arrives at the station, it will be pulled by Mallard.