The Ministry of Health is finding that the foreign patients who come for treatment in the hospitals are creating a lot of bad debt for the hospitals. They often leave without paying the bills which need to be written off.

The Ministry has said in a report that they have been facing this problem for several years. Only in 2010, they reportedly had an outstanding debt of $13 million. District health boards billed non-residents $33 million last year. Out of this $13 million was unpaid and $8 million had to be written off.

The Auckland District Health Board issued the single largest bill of $338,000 for a patient who was treated in the intensive care, critical care and given a haemodialysis. However, there is no information about the patient’s survival.

The National Health Board Finance Manager, Mr. John Hazeldine said that the Ministry had provided some compensation to those health boards who suffered heavier losses. He added, "The ministry provides around $2 million each to Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs each year."

Waikato District Health Board Accounts Manager, Ms. Brenda Allison said in a statement, "For every dollar not recovered, it reduces our funding for treatment for other patients." However, she said that even if they try it is very hard to track a patient once he has left the country.