header-logo header-logo

To treat or not to treat?

29 October 2009 / Adam Hundt
Issue: 7391 / Categories: Features , Human rights , Community care
printer mail-detail

What happens when migrants can’t pay for treatment? asks Adam Hundt

The NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989/306) (the regulations) provide that overseas visitors must be charged for secondary care they receive, unless one of the many exemptions in the regulations applies.

Some types of treatment are exempt from charging, eg for infectious diseases such as TB, or STDs, but not for HIV; some types of patient are exempt from charges, eg refugees or people who have been lawfully resident in the UK for more than 12 months; and some types of nationality are exempt, eg people from countries with a reciprocal agreement with the UK.

Interestingly, both primary and secondary legislation in this area concentrates solely on charging for treatment. No mention is made of withholding treatment but the obvious question, once a charging regime comes into being, is what happens when a patient cannot pay?

The Department of Health issued detailed non-statutory guidance on the implementation of the regulations which addressed this problem to some

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll