Coalition calls for the immediate suspension of NHS charging to prevent more COVID-19 deaths over the winter

Charging migrants for hospital services is putting lives and public health at risk, and could undermine the UK’s COVID-19 response, warns a coalition of academics, non-governmental organisations, professional bodies and people with lived experience of healthcare exclusion. Today, Doctors of the World UK (DOTW), Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration health, and the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) are launching a coalition campaign to call for universal and equitable access to NHS services during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. More than 30 organisations have already joined the Hands Up for Our Health campaign and coalition building is ongoing. Read the joint press release. The coalition said as a first priority, the UK Government must immediately suspend the NHS charging regulations, which pose a serious risk to public health and are causing unnecessary suffering and death among some of those in the most vulnerable situations in the UK, such as destitute migrants. “In our clinic, we see patients too afraid to go to hospital in case they receive a bill they have no chance of ever being able to pay,” said Doctors of the World UK Head of Policy and Advocacy, Anna Miller. “Often these are people who are already living in very difficult circumstances, without a secure home or enough money to meet their basic food and clothing needs.” In April, DOTW, Lancet Migration, FPH, along with more than 30 other medical and non-profit organisations, wr...
Source: Doctors of the World News - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Uncategorised Source Type: news