BMJ  2006;333:259 (29 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7561.259

Letter

No health safety net for failed asylum seekers and others in UK

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Hall shows that current health rules, which deny some of the most vulnerable people in the United Kingdom essential medical care, flout international law.1 2 Evidence is mounting of the impact the tougher restrictions on NHS entitlement are having on vulnerable migrants living in the UK.

Last month the Refugee Council published a report documenting 37 case studies of failed asylum seekers who were refused medical care that they needed.3 Médecins du Monde UK is also witnessing secondary care being denied to failed asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants through our healthcare initiative "Project: London." The number of pregnant women who have been refused antenatal care, unless they pay the full amount for the care in advance, is growing. This approach puts these women and their babies at great risk and ignores government guidance, which clearly states that maternity services should not be withheld if the woman is unable . . . [Full text of this article]

Karen A McColl, director

Médecins du Monde UK, London E14 5AA karen.mccoll@medecinsdumonde.org.uk


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Failed asylum seekers and health care
Peter Hall
BMJ 2006 333: 109-110. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Lack of clarity to entitlement leaves Migrant Domestic Workers excluded from primary health care.
Camilla S Brown
bmj.com, 22 Dec 2006 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ