The government has announced plans to tackle what it claims is the growing problem of health tourism, writes Tom Price.

Ministers are planning to tighten the rules which say who gets free NHS treatment to prevent abuse by foreign visitors. The clampdown follows concern that a number of foreign nationals are arriving in the UK with serious medical conditions requiring urgent treatment.Under the current rules any foreign citizen in Britain is entitled to NHS treatment, provided they are "engaging in employment as an employed or self-employed person". However, concerns have been raised that some visitors to the UK do so under the premise of a "business trip" to secure treatment that would otherwise cost them thousands of pounds.

Now the Department of Health has launched a clampdown and says that in future, failed asylum seekers and business travellers will no longer be eligible for free care. In future, foreign nationals will have to prove that they have a work contract in the UK before free care becomes available.

However the Conservatives said the proposals did not go far enough. The NHS needs a new entitlement card, said Shadow health secretary Liam Fox. "It is just open house on the British taxpayer, and the NHS is becoming the health equivalent of Disneyland for tourists. We have a healthcare system that is already working at full capacity. We are giving preference to people who have not contributed to the NHS at the expense of those who have," he said.

Potential users of the NHS would have to produce the card within a certain number of days, as happens with a driving license, Dr Fox said.The debate followed earlier concerns expressed by Lib Dem MP for St. Ives, Andrew George, who demanded changes to the way the NHS in Cornwall is funded for the services it offers to tourists. Cornwall's health service is owed £2 million from the DoH for the care of tourists but the money can take up to two years to be paid.