Express
December 31, 2013
Pregnant foreigners are flying to Britain in droves to take advantage of free NHS care.
More than 300 women who were about to give birth were stopped at Gatwick in a two year period, according to a government report.
Most of the women received treatment on the NHS after being deemed to close to giving birth to return home.
The total exploiting the health service is thought to much higher, as Gatwick has a limited number of flights from countries with the highest rate of so-called health tourists.
Despite airlines usually not allowing mothers-to-be who are more than 36 weeks pregnant to fly, the women were able to gain entrance to the UK by using forged doctors notes which hid how far along they were.
The already stretched health service is set to come under even more pressure next week when labour market restrictions are lifted and thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants are predicted to flood the UK.