Over 150 Health Professionals Call For Scrapping Of Charges & ID Checks in NHS

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In a letter published in The Evening Standard over 150 healthcare professionals call for the scrapping of healthcare charges and ID checks for migrants in the NHS.

Dear Editor,

As healthcare workers we are concerned about your report (29 May 2018) demonstrating the tiny proportion of chargeable patients identified by recent ID checks in the NHS. ID checks and charging deter vulnerable people from seeking help when they are unwell. What is more, as we have seen with the Windrush generation, determining eligibility is not easy and further entrenches discrimination already faced by some communities. Deterring people from healthcare delays care which causes harm to individuals, threatens public health and costs more. As healthcare workers we must ‘do no harm’. These discriminatory policies turn healthcare workers into border guards, and undermine our duty of care as well as the founding principles of the NHS. The charging regulations must be scrapped immediately – healthcare must never be a ‘hostile environment’. 

Signed:

Dr. Miriam Beeks, GP

Dr. Lisa Murphy, Foundation Doctor

Dr. Frank Arnold, Forensic medical practitioner

James Skinner, A&E Nurse

Dr. Joseph Freer, GPST1

Dr. Rebecca Marcus, SpR

Mrs. Esther Afari-Mensah, Public health professional

Dr. Huw Evans, Emergency Medicine Registrar

Dr. Helen Greener, Consultant in Gender Dysphoria

Dr. Aislinn Macklin-Doherty, Medical Oncology

Dr. John McKay, Doctor

Dr. Neal Russell, Doctor

Mr. Dev Lall, Surgeon

Dr. Victoria Ramsden, Doctor

Dr. Anant Patel, Consultant Physician

Dr. Hugo Farne, Respiratory Registrar

Dr. Claire Ferraro, Clinical Fellow in Integrated Sexual Health

Dr. Joseph Piper, Paediatric SHO

Dr. Anna Rom, GP

Dr. Maryam Omar, Medical Doctor

Professor Chris Griffiths, GP

Dr. Bernadette Borgstein, Consultant Paediatrician

Dr. Emily Whitehouse, Paediatric registrar

Dr. James Smith, A&E Doctor

Dr. Jonathan Sturgeon, Paediatric Registrar

Dr. Sebastian Hormaeche, Trust Fellow

Dr. Kaveri Jalundhwala, SHO

Dr. Aaminah Verity, GPST2

Dr. Rita Issa, GP Registrar

Dr. Kitty Worthing, Doctor

Dr. Alex Smith, Specialty registrar, public health

Dr. Andy Young, Paediatric Trainee

Ms. Aedín O’Cuill, Final Year Medical Student

Dr. Stephen Hibbs, Haematology SpR

Mr. Siegfried Wagner, Academic Clinical Fellow in Ophthalmology

Dr. Sarah Finer Consultant, Diabetologist

Dr. Andrew Prendergast, Reader and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician

Dr. Colin Brown, Consultant in Infectious Diseases

Dr. Carla Stephen, Consultant

Dr. Dominik Zenner, GP

Dr. Elizabeth Hubbard, GP

Dr. Salman Haider, Neurology Registrar

Dr. Paul Greaves, Consultant Haematologist

Dr. William Ricketts, Consultant Chest Physician

Dr. Katie Williams, GPST1

Dr. Ross Ford, Doctor of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Maryann Noronha, Doctor

Dr. Mary Kamara, Doctor

Dr. Jackie Applebee, GP

Dr. Christopher Wood, Consultant HIV Physician, North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust

Dr. David Kynaston, Doctor

Ms. Erin Dexter, Medical student, UCL Medical School

Dr. Soraya Boomla, GP

Dr. Sifot Ali, GP

Dr. Sarah Walpole, Trust doctor, Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Mrs. Hannah Basson, Allied Health Professional, Secretary Unite Gloucester Area Health Sector Branch

Dr. Helen Hammond, O&G registrar

Dr. Phillip Bennett-Richards, GP, Tower Hamlets

Dr. Veronika Wagner, Registered medical practitioner

Dr. Clare Rollason, GPST3

Miss Aileen Ni Chaoilte, Sister/ Team Lead

Dr. Eilidh Renwick, GP

Ms. Ali Criado-Perez, Nurse, Humanitarian Aid

Ms. Rachel Childs, Student nurse

Dr. Liza Bowen, Doctor

Dr. Judith Main, GP

Dr. Anna E. Livingstone, GP

Dr. Richa Singh, Consultant Respiratory Physician

Dr. Dan Reisel, Hospital Doctor, Specialist Trainee

Dr. Cicely Cunningham, Doctor

Dr. Tehmina Bharucha, Specialist Trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology

Mrs. Annique Simpson, District Nurse

Dr. Amy Colori, Oncology registrar

Dr. Grant Ingrams, GP

Dr. Neil Tiwari, Core Trainee Anaesthetics

Professor Anita Berlin, GP & Professor of Primary Care Education

Rebecca Dalton, Fy1

Dr. Louise Hammersley, GP

Dr. Gemma Williams, Hospital Doctor

Dr. Alice Kociejowski, Doctor

Dr. Roghieh Dehghan Zaklaki, GP

Dr. Samantha Batt-Rawden, Chair, The Doctors’ Association, UK EM/ICM Registrar

Dr. Ben Eder, Foundation Doctor

Dr. Jessica Potter, Respiratory Registrar

Dr. Chinedu Nwokoro, Consultant Paediatrician

Dr. Sara Swan, GP

Dr. Mike Fitchett, GP

Dr. Helen Burn, Ophthalmologist

Alice Blewitt, Medical student

Dr. Damien Ming, Medical Registrar

Dr. Aruna Dias, Consultant Gastroenterologist

Dr. Sarah Boutros, Paediatric Registrar

Professor Shirley Hodgson, Emeritus Professor of cancer genetics

Miss Selina Christy, Medical student

Dr. Joanna Dobbin, Academic Fy2 Doctor

Dr. Bryony Hopkinshaw, Junior doctor in Paediatrics

Dr. Alba Bajrami, Doctor

Dr. Huw Lewis, FY1 Doctor

Dr. Annabel Crowe, GP

Dr. Nathan Cantley, Academic FY2 Doctor

Mr. Jasper Jackson, CQC analyst

Mr. Jared Charlton-Webb, HCSW/Student

Ms. Florence Mutlow, Medical Student

Dr. John Robson, GP

Ms. Melanie Jenkins, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon

Dr. Jacky Davis, Consultant radiologist, BMA Council

Dr. David Wrigley, NHS GP and Chair of Doctors in Unite (Medical Practitioners Union)

Dr. Susanna Jane Bernal, Consultant Psychiatrist

Dr. Kailash Chand, Chair Healthwatch Tameside

Dr. Silas Webb, Foundation Doctor

Dr. Bronya Gorney, GP

Dr. Piyush Pushkar, Psychiatry CT3 doctor and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow

Dr. Laura Macfarlane, Respiratory SpR

Dr. Sophie Osbourne, GP

Dr. Zaineb Hafeez, Doctor

Dr. Carol Dezateux, Professor and Honorary Consultant

Dr. Felicia Yeung, Doctor

Dr. Stefan Ebmeier, Doctor

Miss Gemma Whyatt, Healthcare Assistant/Student Doctor

Dr. Clare Blackwell, Medical Registrar

Mr. Liban Ahmed, Medical Student

Dr. Hosnieh Djafari Marbini, Anaesthetic Consultant

Dr. Samson Williams, Foundation Doctor

Dr. Rinesh Parmar, Anaesthetic Registrar

Dr. Eleanor Jones, Consultant, Emergency Medicine

Shamira Bhikha, GP

Dr. Daniela Kirwan, Registrar

Dr. Francesca Burns, FY2 A&E

Dr. Christopher Stone, CT2 Anaesthetics

Dr. Bruno Gnaneswaran, FY1

Professor David McCoy, Professor of Global Public Health

Dr. Coral Jones, GP

Dr. Joseph Gafton, Doctor

Dr. Kirsten Shirke, GP

Dr. Helen Groom, GP retired

Dr. Jonathan Broad, Paediatrician

Dr. Aqilah Vilcassim, Doctor

Dr. Anna Lewis, Foundation Doctor

Dr. James Crane, Clinical Research Fellow

Dr. Sophie Williams, Doctor

Dr. Pam Wortley, Retired GP

Dr. Daniel Campion, Medical Practitioner

Dr. Oliver Johnson OBE, PhD Student

Dr. Alison Smailes, GP

Dr. Miriam Orcutt, Public health doctor

Dr. Shriya Vinod, GP

Dr. Tom Yates, Senior House Officer (Core Medical Training)

Dr. Jeremy Tong, Consultant Paediatric Intensivist

Dr. Jonathan Cunliffe, Junior Doctor

Dr. Penny Louch, Nurse Practitioner Partner

Dr. Robert Verrecchia, Public health doctor

Dr. John Puntis, Consultant paediatrician

Dr. Iram Siddiqui, Consultant