Couple stopped from taking baby's body home from hospital ‘because they couldn't pay NHS fees’

Woman was handed £10,000 bill while recovering after losing child at eight-months pregnant

The Royal College of Midwives said maternity care should be exempt from overseas charges. (fstop/iStock)

A couple whose baby died following an emergency caesarean section were not given their child’s body afterwards because they were unable to pay NHS fees.

The couple, who were on holiday in the UK from a western European country, did not have a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which would have given them access to free healthcare.

Joe Rylands, a doctor who was working in the maternity unit said the woman was eight-months pregnant and had started bleeding. An emergency c-section, but the baby died.

While the woman was recovering in a ward, they were met by a manager who informed them they faced a £10,000 for the unsuccessful operation.

The 2018 incident has been highlighted by the Royal College of Midwives who told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that the practice of charging overseas patients for healthcare must be suspended until it has been established it isn’t harming women.

“There's a service the NHS offers when you've had a miscarriage or when your baby has died - they can present it to you, the body in a bassinet, you take it home to have a funeral," Dr Rylands told the programme. “That can be a really important process in grieving and recovery. And this couple were not allowed to have the body because they hadn't paid the bill."

The Royal College of Midwives said maternity care should be exempt from overseas charges.

Sean O'Sullivan, the organisation’s head of health and social policy, told the BBC: “It could put off women who need care but are frightened that they may not be able to pay in the longer term. This is potentially dangerous for the woman and her developing baby.”

Currently those who receive NHS care and live within the European Economic Area and hold a valid EHIC are treated for free with the NHS recovering the cost from the country the patient is a citizen in.

Those outside the EEA and without a valid EHIC are charged.

The British Medical Association has called for overseas charges to be abandoned, and the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Paediatrics and Child Health, Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Faculty of Public Health have all urged the government to suspend the existing system.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: “British taxpayers support the NHS so it is only right that overseas visitors also make a contribution to our health service so everyone can receive urgent care when they need it and, since 2015, charges for people who are not UK residents have secured an extra £1.3bn for front-line NHS services.

“Importantly, our guidance is clear that urgent treatment must never be withheld, if someone cannot pay.”