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This briefing is in response to a cross-Government enforcement strategy document "Enforcing the Rules" (Home Office, 2007). This suggests that primary care will be brought into line with existing secondary care regulations.
The Government is currently considering charging refused asylum seekers and undocumented migrants for NHS primary health care.
We are concerned such charges could:
· Deny vulnerable and often destitute individuals the chance to identify serious and sometimes life-threatening conditions which need immediate treatment
· Contribute to maternal and infant mortality by delaying or preventing access to maternity care
· Condemn many children to a life without primary healthcare, inevitably resulting for some in serious illness and death
· Increase the likelihood of serious communicable diseases such as TB and HIV going undiagnosed and being transmitted, thus endangering public health
· Remove an important source of support for women experiencing domestic abuse
· Increase avoidable costs to the NHS resulting from late diagnosis and additional administration, and increase avoidable admissions to hospital
· Overburden Accident and Emergency Departments both with those who should be treated (at significantly less cost) in primary care and with those who have become seriously ill because primary care was unavailable
· Deny GPs their current discretion to judge how best to meet the healthcare needs of their local population
· Breach basic international human rights obligations of the UK1 and entrench discrimination in the NHS Medact's petition Click here for Medact's petition on primary care and charging.
Objective of petition: To convince the Home Office and Department of Health that a policy of excluding vulnerable migrants from NHS care is neither acceptable nor workable. Any such change in regulation must be preceded by a full Health Impact Assessment.
We hope that you, your colleagues and/or your organisation will support this campaign by signing the petition.
You can offer your support to the campaign in the ways listed below. Sign the statementYou can sign online
Or Print out the statement sign it and return as indicated Send an email to the Secretary of State for HealthExpress your concern at the proposed changes. Please write the email in a way that makes clear your own concerns on this matter. You can do it online The briefing paper This explains the proposed changes and their potential impact. The paper along with copies of the statement to download are available from the Medact website If you are a health professional please consider contacting your professional organisation and ask them to speak out on this issue. Discuss this issue with colleagues who may not be aware of the review and its possible implications. We will be using this statement of support in a variety of ways including in a response to an upcoming review and consultation by the Home Office and Department of Health on charging and may reach out to press and the media.
Medact
The Grayston Centre
28 Charles Square
London N1 6HT
T: (0)20 7324 4739
F: (0)20 7324 4734
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http://www.medact.org/
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