How please can the government hope to vaccinate undocumented migrants when their GP registration rates are incredibly low because they have reason to fear accessing healthcare as they can be charged and their data shared with immigration enforcement #r4today

My new research, out this week, shows how the culture of fear around accessing healthcare produced by the government's hostile environment means it's not even only those who are undocumented who fear going to the doctor, all migrants and refugees are deterred #r4today

The government cannot reach everyone who needs a vaccine until they stop charging migrants up to 150% of the cost of secondary care
and stop sharing immigration data between the NHS and the Hone Office. #r4today #LeaveNoOneBehind

We @JCWI_UK wrote to SAGE weeks ago raising our concerns about migrants who are likely to be left behind for vaccines because of the Home Office threat. We wrote to the govt last April about the need to scrap their barriers to healthcare, too. #r4today https://www.jcwi.org.uk/news/letter-to-sage-ensure-all-migrants-can-access-the-vaccine

Important to emphasise that simply exempting Covid vaccines & treatment from the charging & data sharing regime will not work. We have seen this approach with TB and HIV and it has not succeeded in making migrants living with those diseases feel safe going to the doctor #r4today

As we are making an enormous effort to get safely out of this pandemic the govt must immediately stop prioritising immigration enforcement over our public health
At the very least it must suspend all charging & data sharing & put in place an information campaign about it #r4today

Many migrants who are scared to go to the doctor because of the Hostile environment work in front line roles, in the health service, in care work, in food production, cleaning, hospitality... we will not get out of this pandemic if we leave undocumented migrants behind #r4today

This announcement urging undocumented migrants to register with a GP is not, again, NOT a change in policy. All migrants have been entitled to register with a GP & access primary healthcare.
They dont, not because they cant, but because they FEAR the hostile environment #r4today

Again, my research shows high % of those entitled to free healthcare & not at risk of deportation, refugees in particular, have extremely low trust and fear going to the doctor.
GP staff often turn these people away despite being eligible. This is the hostile environment #r4today

Minnie ofc has an excellent thread here on this same subject. Crucially she highlights how removing barriers to healthcare is more urgent than ever in a pandemic, but it is bad for our public health & esp for minority communities to have them at ANY TIME. https://twitter.com/minnierahman/status/1358745007923019781