African woman receives £145,000 worth of free NHS treatment

[dutchman]

Health tourist who came to UK to give birth says no one's asked her to pay

• Bimbo Ayelabola, 37, had to have complex caesarean section while in UK
  
• The operation and neo-natal care for five babies cost in excess of £145,000
  
• She returned to her native Lagos where she is successful a make-up artist
  
• It's emerged that Homerton Hospital, east London, won't chase her for bill

A Nigerian health tourist who cost the NHS £145,000 having quintuplets has said she never even saw a bill.

Bimbo Ayelabola, 37, had to have a complex caesarean section after travelling to Britain while pregnant in 2011.

The operation and neo-natal care for the five babies cost the Health Service in excess of £145,000 – but Miss Ayelabola never paid a penny towards the bill.

And now it has emerged the hospital involved will not chase her for the money.

Miss Ayelabola has since returned to her home city of Lagos, where she is a successful make-up artist who drives a £17,000 car.

When confronted by the Daily Mail about the NHS bill, she said: ‘I have never received my bill. If I had it, I would pay it.’

The hospital involved yesterday admitted it sent only one request for payment, more than six months after Miss Ayelabola left the hospital – and had failed to take any further action when it was returned unpaid.

It said it would not be pursuing Miss Ayelabola for the money, even after the Daily Mail offered to pass on her address.

The case follows a series of revelations by the Mail on the true scale of health tourism in Britain. NHS whistleblowers have told how bosses are instructing them to turn a blind eye to health tourists because it is ‘too much trouble’ to chase them for money.

Only around 16 per cent of the cost of treating health tourists is ever clawed back, according to NHS estimates.

The Nigerian mother obtained a visitor’s visa soon after discovering she was pregnant in 2010, travelling to the UK to stay with her younger sister, Stella, early in her pregnancy.

She gave birth to two boys and three identical girls at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, East London, in April 2011 – seven weeks premature. She had a complex caesarean and remained in hospital for almost two weeks after the birth at a cost of £145,000 to UK taxpayers.

Despite having an expired visa, Miss Ayelabola continued living in her sister’s flat in Poplar, East London, after the births. She didn’t return home until February 2013.

Miss Ayelabola’s children are now four years old and attending a private school. When she was tracked down by the Mail to the small salon she shares with other beauticians, she said she did not understand what she had done wrong. ‘What is it that’s my fault? I don’t understand,’ she said.

‘They blamed me that I came to the UK and I just came to use the system. Which I did not do.

‘If it (health tourism) is a problem in the UK, you should talk to the NHS. I have never received my bill. If I had it, I would pay it.’

She added that she was allowed to stay in the UK without needing to ask and without having to apply.

‘I did not want to stay... it was just my situation,’ she said.

MPs and campaigners last night described the case as ‘galling’ and called for an inquiry into the hospital’s failure to recoup the money.

Conservative MP Peter Bone said: ‘If people have failed to do what they should, then at the very least they need to put in a robust system to ensure it doesn’t happen again.’

Roger Goss, of Patient Concern, added: ‘No wonder the NHS has such financial problems.’

Miss Ayelabola runs a successful make-up business at the Elderberry Salon in east Lagos. Her two boys, Tayseel and Samir, and three girls, Aqeelah, Binish and Zara, attend a respected private school nearby. Fees are at least £8,000 a year for the five of them.

She is thought to live alone with them and when they are not in school, she takes them with her to work. She charges £40 per hour for a full face of make-up and advertises through her Instagram account, called ‘Otse Beauty’. On the account she posts photographs of herself and others in dramatic eye make-up.

It is understood Miss Ayelabola is separated from her wealthy husband, Ohi Nasir Ilavbare, but he is still involved in the children’s lives and is believed to pay for their education.

[rebbonk]

A joke isn't it?

How about, no health insurance no entry to the country? Too simple I guess!

[Davey]

NIgeria was a former British Colony and a source of Slaves before abolition so her Ancestors probably paid their dues.

The British Museum is still stuffed with Benin Bronzes which were looted from the Royal Palace during colonisation.

[dutchman]

Nigerian mother racks up £350,000 bill in NHS hospital after flying to Britain to give birth to twins

A hospital is chasing a £350,000 bill racked up by a Nigerian mother who flew to Britain to give birth to twins.

The shocking figure exposes the scale of abuse of the crumbling NHS by health tourists. The woman, who has not been identified, had a caesarean section at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital.

She had been transferred there from another hospital because of pregnancy complications. Her twins then spent two months in intensive care.

The Government has been accused repeatedly of failing to clamp down on health tourism, which is thought to cost up to £280million a year.

Patients face fewer checks on eligibility for free treatment than in other countries. The bill comes to light at a time when the NHS is in the grip of an unprecedented winter crisis, itself blamed on lack of funds.

The case at Luton was uncovered through a series of freedom of information requests sent by the Mail to all hospitals in England.

A spokesman confirmed the hospital was owed £348,683 by the Nigerian mother who gave birth to twins in 2015. The woman had been transferred from another hospital nearby due to complications during the pregnancy and the babies spent two months on the paediatric intensive care unit.

Luton is one of just three paediatric intensive care units in the East of England, and the trust said it could not refuse treatment 'if there was a danger to life'.

Shouldn't they have checked on her medical condition BEFORE granting her a visitor's permit?

[rebbonk]

It is quite simple...

No health insurance no entry to the country!

[Melisandre]

I would of thought being an oil rich country they would have great medical care in Nigeria and considering the value of bronze and things we took back then makes up for what we have given back since considering no one in the uk that lives today and are suffering cut back s plus cancer treatment stopped now had any thing to do with it or are we being taken for mugs per usual. I wonder how many more centurys are we suppose to pay back which had nothing to do with the British people here today or in the future.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3579070/250million-given-Britain-Nigerian-president-five-homes-sends-daughter-26-000-year-English-school.html