Foreign patients owe $72k to Wairarapa Hospital

The total cost in 2012-13 of treating foreign patients at Wairarapa Hospital was $87,532 but to date most of it - $72,503 - has not been paid back.

Foreigners owe around $72,000 in outstanding medical bills to Wairarapa Hospital.

Ineligible for public health care, many visitors to New Zealand must pay for health care they receive.

The total cost in 2012-13 of treating foreign patients was $87,532 but to date most of it - $72,503 - has not been paid back.

The figures in a chief executive's report to the Wairarapa District Health Board were revealed under the Official Information Act.

Over the past two years, 18 patients from around the globe were admitted to hospital, often in an emergency.

Last year, a Fijian man who sustained a brain injury, stayed over two months in the hospital's high dependency unit, amassing a $73,772 bill.

This year, a South African woman with chest pain, a Chilean man with stomach pain, a Filipino man with a chest infection and a young, pregnant South African woman also with a chest infection were admitted to the emergency department, racking up over $5000 in costs.

The cost of emergency care, hospital stays, 24-hour special care, acute assessment unit admissions and laboratory tests made up the bills.

In the last financial year, two non-New Zealand residents who incurred hospital bills have left the country, leaving $2300 unpaid.

The board encourages patients to pay their accounts off by weekly instalments. It also works with Immigration NZ and debt collection agencies.