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Migrants have always been able to access GPs at no risk of deportation.
But we've reached a point where the policies are so dangerous that the Home Office has had to cynically relaunch an existing policy.
So, how did we get here? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55978334
But we've reached a point where the policies are so dangerous that the Home Office has had to cynically relaunch an existing policy.
So, how did we get here? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55978334
A 'simple' explanation of the system.
1. Everyone can access primary care i.e. VACCINE
2. Not everyone can get free secondary care i.e. surgery
3. UNLESS that secondary care is "urgent and life-saving".
You can see easily how many grey areas are caused by those groups.
1. Everyone can access primary care i.e. VACCINE
2. Not everyone can get free secondary care i.e. surgery
3. UNLESS that secondary care is "urgent and life-saving".
You can see easily how many grey areas are caused by those groups.
Firstly, it's confusing for anyone who has to implement the charging system. Doctors, nurses and NHS staff should not have to worry or make decisions about whether someone deserves healthcare. They don't have time - especially not in a pandemic. Many mistakes are made.
Crucially it means that many, MANY, GPs do not know that people can register without showing their immigration status. People get turned away all the time and that is not the law. Vaccines
Those mistakes also lead to outcomes like increased racial discrimination. NHS staff overly checking the paperwork of people with foreign sounding names. At a time when people of colour are dying at higher rates from COVID - they do not need this additional barrier in trust.
This leads us right on to the people this affects the most. Having the charging regime in place means that migrant patients are unclear about what healthcare they will be charged for. Can they go to a Dr? Can they go to A+E? Will they be charged thousands for needing surgery?
Like in the US - this either leads to people not going to a Dr in time so getting delayed treatment and are sicker by the time they come forward. Care for pregnancy accessed too late. Or they don't go at all and die.
Perhaps even worse than the charging is data-sharing with the Home Office. Migrants are so afraid that their medical records will be handed to immigration officials and then used to deport them. This happens at a shocking rate. It's, unfortunately, a justified concern.
This is perhaps the main reason why the Home Office has to press release it's own policy as if it's a brand new thing. They've recognised that people won't come forward for a vaccine, that population is significant enough that it would stop us being able to tackle COVID.
If it's bad for public health in a pandemic, it's bad for public health out of a pandemic too. While we need a big public campaign to say that everyone can get the vaccine, more generally they just need to get rid of a system that puts people's health at risk.
The pandemic has shown us that we are literally all in this together. We cannot have a two-tier system for health in place, it makes everything worse, more bureaucratic, more people die, doctors have less time, the economy suffers. etc.
Now the Home Office have made public that they know their system is dangerous, they cannot be allowed to go back on it. Suspend the Hostile Environment immediately. It is the ONLY way to ensure that people who need treatment, get it. Simple.
Final thought - they are framing this as an "amnesty" because they want to be able to say they gave something to migrants and that they were generous. So when many migrants aren't vaccinated, they can say that migrants did it to themselves.
