A Nigerian woman identified as 37-year-old Bimbo Ayelabola has been let off her bill by a National Health Service (NHS) Hospital after delivering quintuplets in Britain.
A 37-year old Nigerian health tourist, Bimbo Ayelabola, who had to have a complex caesarean section after travelling to Britain while pregnant in 2011, has said she never saw a bill and probably might have been pardoned of her £145,000 NHS bill after giving birth to quintuplets.
The operation and neo-natal care for the five babies cost the Health Service in excess of £145,000, but Miss Ayelabola never paid a penny towards the bill. And now it has emerged the hospital involved will not chase her for the money.
She runs a successful make-up business at the Elderberry Salon in Lagos
The mum-of-five has since returned to Lagos, where she is a successful make-up artist who drives a £17,000 car. She told Dailymail when confronted about the NHS bill; "I have never received my bill. If I had it, I would pay it."
More than six months after Miss Ayelabola left the hospital, the hospital involved, few days ago, admitted it sent only one request for payment, and had failed to take any further action when it was returned unpaid. It said it would not be pursuing Miss Ayelabola for the money.
The case follows a series of revelations on the true scale of health tourism in Britain. NHS whistleblowers have told how bosses are instructing them to turn a blind eye to health tourists because it is ‘too much trouble’ to chase them for money. Only around 16 per cent of the cost of treating health tourists is ever clawed back.
Ayelabola is said to have obtained a visitor’s visa after discovering she was pregnant in 2010, and stayed with her younger sister in the UK early in her pregnancy. She remained in the hospital for almost 2 weeks after the birth of two boys, and three identical girls, in April 2011.
She gave birth to two boys and three identical girls at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, East London, in April 2011
And although her visa reportedly expired, she continued living in her sister’s apartment with the children and did not return home until February 2013. Ayelabola recently spoke to Mailonline, saying;
"They blamed me that I came to the UK and I just came to use the system. Which I did not do. If it (health tourism) is a problem in the UK, you should talk to the NHS. I have never received my bill. If I had it, I would pay it."
Miss Ayelabola is separated from her wealthy husband, Ohi Nasir
She added that she was allowed to stay in the UK without needing to ask and without having to apply. "I did not want to stay... it was just my situation," she said.
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