MOVES to ensure that foreign visitors pay for their healthcare needs while in the UK are plainly a good idea.

But new government plans to bill migrants who turn up at A&E are as ill thought out as most of their other proposals.

The NHS overseas visitors’ office is already supposed to recoup health costs from overseas visitors, but only 16 per cent of the estimated £2 billion annual costs is actually clawed back.

So how in reality will this new plan work; will overworked A&E medics turn away sick but penniless patients? It is wrong to expect them to act as border staff.

Our country should insist on all foreign visitors having private health insurance which would be a condition of entry. This is the most effective and fairest way of dealing with the problem.

Jane Collins, UKIP Yorkshire & North Lincs, Main Road, Newport, New Brough.