Later this month, join Docs Not Cops, Migrants Organise, Medact, JCWI, Runnymede Trust and 500 supporters and campaigners for the launch of the Patients Not Passports toolkit and learn how together we can bring down the Hostile Environment in the NHS.
Patients not Passports: Challenging Far Right Policies in the NHS is taking place on Tuesday, 30 April 2019, from 18:30 – 20:30 at St Pancras New Church, Euston Road, London, NW1 2BA.
Through successive immigration acts, the Government has introduced a border regime into the National Health Service. Migrants are now charged upfront to use the NHS, denied care when they cannot prove their eligibility or pay, and are having their sensitive data shared with immigration officials, making many afraid of seeking care altogether.
The Windrush scandal, which revealed that British citizens were denied cancer care, is only the tip of the iceberg. Healthcare workers have reported elderly people being deported without adequate care, children with brain tumours being turned away, care being delayed until a condition is untreatable and countless examples of racial profiling, incorrect designations and other misapplications of the policy that prove its unworkability.
The charging regime is a manifestation of far right politics, now adopted and promoted by the Government. The Hostile Environment in the NHS constitutes a threat to migrant and BAME communities, as well as being a precursor to accelerated austerity. This makes the charging regime a key battle ground in the struggle against racism and austerity in Britain today.
Patients not Passports: Challenging Far Right Policies in the NHS will be an opportunity to learn about how the policies are affecting healthcare workers and migrant communities, the collective organising responses being formulated, and how you can get involved.
The event will also publicly launch the Patients Not Passports campaigning toolkit which can be accessed online at www.patientsnotpassports.co.uk.
