Jean’s latest e-news is out now.

It outlines some of the issues she’s been working on in September – from meeting volunteers at Doctors of the World’s London clinic, to urging a strong response on the Rohingya crisis in the European Parliament, and speaking at the People’s March for Europe.

The newsletter also explain how, until 27th October, employers have a chance to tell the Migration Advisory Committee about their views on Brexit. Make sure your voice is heard!

Read the newsletter in full here.

To receive monthly updates about Jean’s work as London’s Green MEP please sign up here.

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Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP, has written for the New Statesman about the crisis in access to NHS healthcare for migrants.

Read the article below, or find it on the New Statesman website here.

Charities forced to charge – how the government is depriving the most vulnerable of healthcare

This is all part of the “hostile environment” for undocumented migrants created by Theresa May.

Since 2006, Doctors of the World has run a small clinic in East London which provides advice and medical care to people who are excluded from mainstream health services. There shouldn’t be a need for this service in the UK today – but nonetheless, it struggles to keep up with demand.

When I visited the clinic last week, I was told that most people who walk through its doors are homeless, have experienced trauma and violence, or are victims of trafficking or modern day slavery. These aren’t so-called “health tourists”. They have been in the UK for an average of six years, and almost all are working in low-paid, exploitative jobs. They have developed health issues, and they’re frightened – scared of being landed with huge healthcare bills, or of a knock on the door from immigration enforcement leading to detention or deportation.

It’s long been the case that people classed as “overseas visitors” must pay for hospital care from the NHS. The category includes those who are on short-term visits to the UK, some who have been refused asylum, and others who are completely off the radar of the Home Office.

However, on 21 August 2017, this scheme was extended. These individuals are now not only expected to pay for hospital care but for community services received outside of hospitals – things like district nursing and community midwifery. On 23 October, it will be expanded further still to encompass non-NHS providers of NHS-funded care. That will touch on thousands of third sector organisations, such as Marie Stopes, which provides free sexual health and abortion services, and Mind which provides therapeutic intervention services to improve the wellbeing of those who refuse help.

All of these organisations will be lumbered with the bureaucratic nightmare of having to identify which patients can be treated for free, and who will be billed. They will be required to charge upfront, asking patients to pay before treatment at 150 per cent the cost of the service or procedure. Those who can’t pay will be turned away – unless the doctor deems the situation to be an emergency, in which case they’ll be charged shortly afterwards. Given that some of these organisations also have a charitable dimension, this is a very difficult thing to ask of them.

Meanwhile, the government has another scheme up its sleeve to deter “overseas visitors” from accessing the NHS. When a patient is billed for a service, details including their name and address are shared with the Home Office. This relationship has become more entrenched thanks to a recent agreement between the Home Office and NHS Digital. This enables government officials to access the non-medical details of anyone who registers for primary care – GPs, community pharmacies, dental care, and opticians. The Home Office can then pursue anyone whose details it considers irregular.

We don’t usually consider it a luxury to be able to prioritise our physical and mental wellbeing above other aspects of our lives. Yet, as the clinic manager told me, most patients who find themselves at Doctors of the World believe that avoiding deportation is more important than their health.

This is all part of the “hostile environment” for undocumented migrants created by Theresa May during her years running the Home Office. As we know – all too well – while she may claim to want to help the victims of terrible crimes such as modern slavery, nothing takes precedence over her obsession with reducing the UK’s net migration figure to a bare minimum.

It’s now reached the point where victims of trafficking and exploitation are deterred from registering with a GP, as they fear detention and deportation. Women, such as sex workers, are denied access to contraception, safe abortions, and maternal care. Meanwhile, their children may never see a GP or a dentist, putting their own health at risk. This runs counter to the government’s own policies of improving maternal and new-born health.

Our hospitals, already over-burdened and under-resourced, are under pressure to find a way to effectively implement these changes. Such a task could easily fall into the trap of racial profiling. In the process, doctors and nurses are also being required to take on the responsibilities of immigration officers, making critical decisions about access to healthcare.

Yet it is quite likely that this strategy will fail in its stated aim of saving money for the NHS. The government has – true to form – failed to conduct a full assessment of the cost of the new charging regime, estimating that it will save the NHS (a relatively insignificant) £200,000 each year. However, in the long run we can expect that the scheme will have huge associated costs. Rather than seeing a doctor at the onset of a health problem, people will instead hold off seeking care until it’s a medical emergency and they need to be admitted to A&E – filling beds, using more resources, and requiring complex procedures.

Despite these major flaws, we can expect to see many more invasive data-sharing agreements in future. A recent paper leaked by the Home Office boasted of how the UK’s post-Brexit immigration system will be “as digital, flexible and frictionless as possible” – featuring improved data-sharing capabilities between the Home Office, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Department of Work and Pensions. It looks as if doctors aren’t alone – workers across a range of public and private services, from the NHS to banks and building societies, will be called upon to be immigration officers in Theresa May’s new “global Britain”.

If you’re affected by these issues, click here to learn more about how Doctors of the World can help. Join groups including Docs Not Cops and Migrants Organise, who are protesting at various locations around the UK on 30th September to demand “Patients Not Passports”.

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Ms Lambert said the use of the UK’s nuclear weapons would be illegal under international law, cause millions of deaths and unprecedented destruction to wildlife – and serve no useful diplomatic or foreign relations purpose.

She said the Trident programme, estimated to cost as much as £100 bn (1), was ‘a drain on resources’.

“Just this month, for example, the Government ‘casually’ agreed to spend an extra £270m on repairing and refitting nuclear submarines making up the Trident system – that’s more than five time the £50m in cuts from the Legal Aid budget,” she said.

“Cuts in public services – and public servants’ wages – aren’t inevitable: they are a policy choice.

“Greens believe the Government should make a different choice: starting with a commitment to abandon its costly, pointless and dangerous nuclear weapons arsenal.”

For more details on the costs of Trident, see this CND’s ‘People Not Trident’ report here .

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Speaking as negotiations between the European Commission and the US enter their fourth round in Brussels, Lambert said the free trade agreement could override important EU and UK laws which set standards and protect services – on issues such as food safety, data protection, health and the environment.

The London MEP was speaking at the launch of a joint report from her and Green MEP colleague Keith Taylor, which highlights some of the many dangers of the agreement to UK sovereignty.

The right to access public procurement – government spending, which could include the NHS – forms a major part of negotiations.

Transnational corporations from the US would have the right to enter the UK market – with ‘regulatory harmonisation’ between the EU and US companies leading to standards being watered down.

There is also the prospect that the UK government could be sued if it introduces regulations that might limit the future expected profit of services, making the liberalisation of services virtually irreversible.

Greens are the only major group in the European Parliament which currently opposes the trade deal.

Lambert said: “These deals being made behind closed doors will have serious consequences for our rights – they will see democracy losing out to corporate power.

“We already know the Tory-Lib Dem coalition don’t care about our public services staying in public hands – but this deal could stop future governments reversing their damaging privatisation agenda.

“The deal threatens to open the NHS to US companies, and close the door on a future government putting patients back before profits.

“This trade deal is not about free trade, but a free-for-all, slashing regulations in favour of big business.

“Greens are the only party putting human rights before corporate rights. This deal must be scrapped.”

ENDS

NOTES

The report from Keith Taylor MEP and Jean Lambert MEP is available here.

More info on the TTIP negotiations:

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1020

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The London MEP made her comments as it was revealed that nine A&E wards – as well as maternity services and thousands of hospital beds – are facing closure in the capital as hospital trusts struggle to balance the books.

Ms Lambert said: “This Government promised to defend the NHS – but the reforms it has introduced have done exactly the opposite.

“Greens believe in an adequately-funded publicly-provided NHS, run in the interests of people – not profits – and I was delighted to see so many Green Party supporters at Saturday’s rally.

“But this isn’t just a London issue – and I hope the ‘Keep Our NHS Public’ coalition organises a national demonstration soon, both to increase awareness of the Government’s health cuts and reforms and to ramp up the pressure on Health Minister Jeremy Hunt to ensure local services aren’t sacrificed for short-term financial gains.”

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The wards are scheduled for closure, as well as thousands of hospital beds, in what the Keep Our NHS Public coalition has described as ‘the biggest attack on our NHS in a generation’.

Ms Lambert, who will tomorrow (Saturday, May 18) join thousands of people from across the UK in a march to the Department of Health to protest against the closures – and the threat of hospital and community health services being taken over by private companies, said:

“This Government promised to defend the NHS – but the reforms it has introduced have done exactly the opposite.

“As well as privatising services – allowing Tory donors like Care UK to offer public health care – its cuts and austerity program has caused plans to close hospital wards across the capital.

“Greens believe in an adequately-funded publicly-provided NHS, run in the interests of people – not profits – and I will be proud to march tomorrow alongside some of the millions of NHS workers and patients who agree.”

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Jean said: “Closing down not only the accident and emergency department but also the maternity ward at The Whittington Hospital without offering any viable alternative would have calamitous consequences for the local community. The Whittington serves 250,000 people in the boroughs of Islington, Haringey, Barnet and Camden and to rid them of these vital services could mean journeys of four to five miles to the nearest casualty unit.

“This is simply not acceptable for any resident, and when you consider the number of elderly people and young families in the area the situation becomes even more dire.

“Despite what the other three parties say, there is an alternative to cuts in the NHS and it is the Green Party. We strongly oppose slashing spending on the NHS and stand firmly against the privatisation of the health service, viewing hospitals and health centres as vital public services not businesses.

“No closure of any north London A&E or maternity unit would be given the go ahead by the Green Party unless sufficiently tested alternatives were firmly in place. We strongly believe that fair is worth fighting for and free and universal access to health care is part of that commitment.”

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