Migrant charging in the NHS: how doctors can support patients when hospital care is denied

Since 2017 hospitals in England have been required to check patients’ entitlement to free NHS care and charge them upfront for care to which they aren’t entitled, at 150% of the national tariff.

The government introduced these rules as part of a range of policies to create a “hostile environment” to deter unofficial immigration to the UK and to tackle “health tourism.” But the rules may contravene a global commitment to universal healthcare coverage, as defined by the World Health Organization and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, and several human rights treaties to which the UK is a signatory.1

Some migrants (people not ordinarily resident in the UK) who need treatment are being turned away, campaigners say, and some avoid seeking treatment at all because they fear their information will be shared with the Home Office, which might lead to their detention or deportation.2

Pending full publication of a recent formal review of the rules’ effects, medical royal colleges, including the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of General Practitioners, and the Faculty of Public Health, have joined charities and other organisations to call for the suspension of NHS charges to migrants.3