Government u-turn on access to health care for people refused asylum?
February 17, 2009
Government u-turn on access to health care for people refused asylum?
Alan Johnson, the Health Minister, has recently made strong indications that they have changed the mind about denying people refused asylum to access GP’s.
Earlier this month he said: “I don’t think we should extend it [secondary care restrictions] to primary care, and neither does the medical expert group that have looked at this…. I understand all the points made by the clinicians we consulted, about the public health risks, the sheer inhumanity of refusing to treat people who are ill in primary care.”
Church Action on Poverty believe that it is not only morally wrong to refuse anyone in Britain healthcare, but also the economic costs of having increasingly sick destitute and desperate people in this country are unfathomable. For many months we have been waiting for the joint plans from the Home Office and the Department of Health to severely stop people refused asylum from using primary health care. We hope the Ministers comments are signs of a definite rethink of their short-sighted proposals.
Last year the High Court ruled that people refused asylum can be considered to be “ordinarily resident” and so entitled to NHS care. But the Government wasn’t happy with this so took the matter to the Court of Appeal. We are waiting for the final ruling. In mean time, the poorly worded guidance from the Department of Health is being used. Unfortunately there are still GP’s who do not understand the confusing guidance or they are exercising negative discretion about who they treat. The guidance doesn’t spell out that an IS96 form and Asylum Registration Card (ARC) will be probably adequate proof of “temporary admission”.
CAP have been supporting the campaign by encouraging doctors to sign an online petition: www.gopetition.co.uk/online/15682.html. This has helped the show the widespread outrage amongst doctors. If you know any (medical) doctors, it is still worth encouraging them to sign the statement online.
