This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Foreign patients could be charged for emergency care
Overseas patients outside of Europe already pay for planned hospital visits, but the proposed plans would extend to trips to A&E and ambulance services.
A consultation is expected to be set up within the next few weeks. The Department of Health (DoH) has said that exemptions would be made for asylum seekers and pregnant women, and that no one would be denied urgent care.
A DoH spokesman said: "International visitors are welcome to use the NHS, provided they pay for it - just as families living in the UK do through their taxes.
"This government was the first to introduce tough measures to clamp down on migrants accessing NHS care and have always been clear we want to look at extending charges for non-EEA migrants.
"No-one will be denied urgent treatment and vulnerable groups will continue to be exempt from charging."
The plans have been criticised by the British Medical Association, which claims that doctors should not act as ‘border guard’. A spokesman said: "A doctor's duty is to treat the patient in front of them, not to act as border guard. Any plans to charge migrants and short-term visitors need to be practical, economic and efficient."
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine echoed these sentiments, saying that doctors could not be expected to ‘take on the burden of identifying who is eligible for free treatment, and who should be charged’.
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