Rights and the reality of healthcare charging in the United Kingdom

In 2004, the United Kingdom Government withdrew free access to secondary healthcare for certain groups of overseas visitors, including those asylum seekers whose claims had failed but were still living legally in the UK. We argue, as others have previously, that the implementation of the 2004 National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations, represents a serious breach of the right to health as envisaged in international law. This placed health care workers in an invidious position of having to identify those entitled to care. We argue that this is not the role of healthcare and that doctors must not allow the denial of healthcare to be used as a tool of immigration policy. We also question the notion that these regulations make economic sense and suggest that they will have a detrimental effect upon public health.