UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick (UHL) is owed over €107,000 by former patients from outside the European Union who failed to settle their bills, including people from the UK.
In response to a Freedom of Information request from The Sunday Times, a hospital spokesperson said that the largest outstanding debt it had on its books was €48,829.
This was well in excess of the next highest amounts with nine others owing between €2,439 and €9,756, records from the UHL finance department showed.
Of the €107,000 outstanding, about €9,000 had been referred on to a debt collection agency. The spokesperson said that this happened in cases when there was no other option as the patient had declined to pay and the bill was outstanding for at least eight weeks.
The report into money owed to Irish hospitals by patients from outside the European Union showed that the highest amount owed was more than €2 million to the Mater Hospital in Dublin. Two patients owed in excess of €100,000, with one owing €111,293 and another having an outstanding debt of €102,732.
St James’s Hospital in Dublin was the next highest with €376,000 owed by former non-EU patients.
