When the NHS was founded, universal access to free treatment was seen as the only way to make sure that the poor and disenfranchised got the care they needed. Today, we are turning away some of the most vulnerable and impoverished people in the UK to suffer and in some cases to die. 

We are violating that “basic human right” and we are excluding people because of their inability to pay.

This report looks at the impact that the NHS Charging for Overseas Visitors Regulations has on failed asylum seekers who need hospital care. Patients denied treatment for cancer and pregnant women forced to give birth alone at home are among the cases highlighted in the report, which calls on the government to restore access to hospital care for asylum seekers whose claims have failed, and on the Health Select Committee to conduct an inquiry into the impact of the regulations across England and Wales.

Refugee Council - Published June 2006

First do no harm : denying healthcare to people whose asylum claims have failed