Under proposals by the Department of Health and the Home Office, a refugee who has lost a claim for asylum will also lose the right to see an NHS doctor. Medical experts want the Government to withdraw the "foolish" plan, which they claim would pose health risks for asylum-seekers and the public. In a letter sent to The Independent and The Lancet medical journal, they warn: "It is not in keeping with the ethics of our profession to refuse to see any person who may be ill, particularly pregnant women with complications, sick children or men crippled by torture. No one would want such a doctor for their GP."

Failed asylum-seekers are already denied free secondary care on the NHS and are entitled to see a GP at their surgery only if the doctor agrees. Since 2004, the Government has been consulting on proposals to remove this discretion, so that failed asylum-seekers would be entitled to free NHS care only in cases of emergency. A final decision is expected within weeks.

Dr Frank Arnold, of the Medical Health Network which has organised a petition against the idea, said: "The Hippocratic oath makes no mention of discriminating against groups of people who are the target of public hate campaigns or whom governments find politically inconvenient.

"To tell doctors who they can and cannot see on this basis will have unpleasant effects on the practise of medicine. Do you want to be struck off your doctor's list because you are overweight or have a condition which might be expensive to treat?"

Yesterday, the Government refused to reconsider its decision to deport a terminally ill cancer victim whose visa had expired. Ama Sumani, 39, was sent back to Ghana from Cardiff last week but cannot afford kidney dialysis to prolong her life. The Lancet called the decision "barbarism", but Lin Homer, the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, told MPs Ms Sumani's case did not stand out from others.

She said: "If we altered our consideration, there would be many thousands who could come and make similar claims. The coherent application of policy and careful consideration of individual issues by caseworkers and the independent judicial process is better and fairer than a decision by me as chief executive or by the minister."

But refugee groups also criticised the plan to restrict NHS care. Donna Covey, the head of the Refugee Council, said: "We have already seen the devastating effect that restrictions on access to secondary healthcare has had on people whose asylum claims have been turned down – cancer sufferers being denied radiotherapy and an operation, pregnant women refused antenatal care then forced to give birth at home, victims of rape being denied treatment.

"Now the Government is considering stopping people from even seeing a doctor. The implications of this are quite frightening."

The doctors' note

The UK Government is imminently considering means to abolish the right of "failed" asylum seekers to primary health care through the National Health Service in Britain. 276 doctors registered to practise in the UK have (so far) signed a petition opposing the policy. The substance of the petition appears below

"This would impose serious health risks on [undocumented migrants] and on the general public. It would also interfere with our ability to carry out our duties as doctors. It is not in keeping with the ethics of our profession to refuse to see any person who may be ill, particularly pregnant women with complications, sick children or men crippled by torture. No one would want such a doctor for their GP.

"We call on the Government to retreat from this foolish proposal, which would prevent doctors from investigating, prescribing for, or referring such patients on the NHS.

"We pledge that, in the event this regulation comes into effect, we will: (a) continue to see and examine asylum-seekers and to advise them about their health needs, whatever their immigration status; (b) document their diagnoses and required clinical care; (c) with suitable anonymisation and consent, copy this documentation to the responsible ministers, [Members of Parliament] and the press; (d) inform the public of the human costs, to harness popular disgust at what is being ordered by the Government in their name; (e) campaign to speedily reverse these ill-advised policies."

Frank Arnold, Iain Chalmers, Andrew Herxheimer, George Lewith, Stephen Kennedy, Peter Kandela, David Nicholl, Daniel Campion, Hugh Morton, Ram Natarajan, Ruairidh Milne, Elaine Chung, Kim A Jobst, Peter McCulloch, David Halpin, Charmian Goldwyn, Chess Denman, Edmund Hey, John Zajicek, Jamie Fulton, Phil Alderson, Hywel Williams, Ruth Gilbert, Michael Baum, and 250 others

Hundreds of seriously ill people deported every year
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent, published: 16 January 2008

Hundreds of seriously ill foreigners are deported every year, Britain's immigration chief admitted as she defended the removal to Ghana of a woman with terminal cancer.

Ama Sumani was receiving kidney dialysis at a Cardiff hospital when she sent back to the west African country because her visa had run out. Lin Homer, the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, told MPs the case was heart-rending but far from exceptional.

Ms Sumani, a 39-year-old widow with two children, who suffers from malignant myeloma, says she cannot afford the £800 a month cost of treatment in Ghana.

Ms Homer was tackled on the deportation by members of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. Its chairman, Keith Vaz, said he had spoken to Ms Sumani in her Ghanaian hospital bed, and she had told him her health had deteriorated.

But Ms Homer ruled out a rethink, adding that there were many other illegal immigrants and failed asylum-seekers in the same position. "I think it is very difficult to see the circumstances in which this case stands out from the very many difficult cases we consider. These are incredibly difficult cases. There are many hundreds each year."

Gwyn Prosser, the Labour MP for Dover, told her: "Many people would believe that this case is exceptional. If it's not exceptional, good God, what is?"

But Ms Homer argued that the courts said deportation could only be stopped in "very rare and extreme cases", which did not even include evidence of terminal illness. "The standard of medical care in this country and the access to it is sufficiently higher than in so many countries, not just Third World or developing countries," Ms Homer said.

"If we vary from that point there are many, many tens of thousands who would be able to argue that."

Ms Homer confirmed Ms Sumani's case had been dealt with by officials and not Home Office ministers.