As the new Department of Health report concedes: “The widespread availability of high-quality healthcare that is free at the point of access creates a risk that some visitors deliberately access healthcare without paying, known as ‘health tourism’.”
The phrase “health tourism” in relation to the NHS – it was already a recognised phenomenon in Communist Cuba – was first used publicly in August 2000.
Figures suggested that one in five beds in a London psychiatric hospital was occupied by a foreigner, as people were able to step off a plane and take a taxi straight to a hospital without any mechanism to ensure they paid for their treatment afterwards.

Pregnant women who wanted their babies to be delivered safely, people with HIV who wanted long-term treatment and businessmen who wanted care for their families were said to be among the main beneficiaries of “health tourism”.