Following visitors to UK not paying for healthcare there, visitors might be asked to hold health insurance before they can enter the country.

This move will crack down on health tourists coming to the UK for treatment.

UK might refuse to allow entry to people who owe money for health care, in a separate immigration review.

Tories said Labour should not have allowed the problem to develop in the first place.

In England, the NHS gets more than £25m every year by overseas visitors, but £5m is written in unpaid bills.

According to the department of health, about 50 per cent of outstanding bills were not paid within a year of treatment and about 5 per cent of overseas patients each had more than two unpaid invoices.

NHS bosses would give a list of those who owe money to immigration officials later this year if the Department of Health's proposals are approved.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas said, "The government believes that those who take advantage of our hospitality should respect that hospitality or face consequences."