[Margaret Pilkington]

I can't supply exact figures...but I know it would be a lot of money.
I don't even know what the procedure is now for winkling out those that should pay....but in my day anyone who had not been resident in the UK for more than 12months was supposed to pay for their treatment....unless they had the e111(european exemption).
Many folk from the indian sub continent would come and have their treatment here, then buzz off back from whence they came.
Once they were gone that was it...even if they had been identified as having to pay for treatment.

As for Doctors doing private practice......yes, they do...but usually at what was Our Lady of Compassion or Gisburn Park....so if one of their patients had a problem they could hurry back and sort it. Would be a different ball game if the consultant were doing private work in China...or even Dubai. then there is the thorny problem of them being suitable to practice once they had just flown in from where ever it was they had been.......a flight delay or a diverted flight could play havoc with a Monday morning NHS theatre list....would you like to be operated on if the consultant had not set eyes on you since you were seen in out patients and referred for surgery?
(Most of the consultants I worked with, would come and see their patients prior to surgery)
I cannot see how this is going to benefit the NHS in any way shape or form.......I can only see it making life much more fraught with problems(unsafe even) for both the staff and the patients.