Doctors have voted overwhelmingly to stop charging foreign patients for NHS care, claiming that doing so is “fundamentally racist”.
Up to 500 delegates at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference in Belfast backed a motion that said asking overseas visitors to pay made medical staff “complicit” in racism.
The BMA will begin lobbying the Department of Health to overhaul the rules.
In a pilot in London to check people’s eligibility for healthcare, only one of the 180 people whose cases were looked at was found to not qualify.
Health charities and groups working with migrants welcomed the BMA’s decision.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “British taxpayers support the NHS and it is only right that overseas visitors also make a contribution to our health service so everyone can receive urgent care when they need it.
“We have exemptions in place to protect public health and the most vulnerable patients. Urgent treatment must never be withheld.”
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