BMA annual meeting: Department of Health must stop sharing patient details with immigration enforcers, says BMA

The BMA will call on the UK Department of Health to stop sharing patient details with the Home Office for immigration enforcement.

Delegates at the BMA’s annual representative meeting in Bournemouth on 28 June voted in favour of a motion opposing the practice of sharing patients’ administrative details, including their address, with the Home Office.

The motion said, “This meeting notes and deplores the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the UK Department of Health, NHS Digital and the Home Office, which agrees to the transfer of patient administrative details . . . without the consent of the patient and the knowledge of the GP.”

It said that this agreement was a …