#albert_thompson

  • As a doctor, I can see that denying #NHS care to immigrants is inhumane

    The government’s charging regime risks costing the lives of thousands of people who can’t pay, such as Albert Thompson, who moved here 44 years ago.

    Last week, the Guardian reported on the case of Albert Thompson, a man who came to London 44 years ago from Jamaica, at a time when many people from Commonwealth countries were migrating to the UK. This includes, of course, the thousands of nurses from Jamaica recruited in response to the NHS staffing crisis of the 1950s and 60s. Thompson’s mother was in fact one of these nurses.

    In November 2017, Thompson, suffering from prostate cancer, was told he could not continue to receive treatment unless he paid a staggering £54,000 upfront. Unable to pay, he was denied further care. This comes within the first month of the introduction of upfront payments, one facet of the government’s policy of charging for NHS services provided to people who aren’t “ordinarily resident” – in practice, charges for immigrants. The charging policy was first introduced under Gordon Brown in 2009, and extended in 2014 as part of a series of Conservative-led hostile environment measures. This is why Docs Not Cops – the campaign group I am part of – was set up: to campaign for free healthcare for everyone, whatever their immigration status.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/doctor-nhs-care-government-albert-thompson
    #accès_aux_soins #santé #frontières #frontières_mobiles #migrations #sans-papiers #UK #Angleterre #inégalité #pauvreté #pauvres #Albert_Thompson #la_frontière_est_partout (du coup : #monde-frontière —> concept de #Paolo_Cuttitta que je devrais utiliser plus souvent comme tag ici)