NHS charging: the unacceptably high cost of recovering debt from vulnerable users
Sarah Steele, University of Cambridge It was revealed recently that members of the Windrush generation of migrants to the UK and their children were having difficulty getting care on the National Health Service because of confusion over their healthcare entitlement. The fiasco highlighted critical issues with the newly expanded charging regime. Under this, those who can’t prove they are entitled to free care have to pay upfront for a range of treatments. These include many hospital treatments and outpatient services, but also some mental health services and community care. When instituting and expanding charging, the UK government guaranteed it would be fair and the vulnerable would be protected – and that immediately necessary and urgent care would never be withheld. However, cases of patients denied cancer treatment unless they can pay significant sums in advance, as well as reports from Doctors of the World of patients scared they might receive large bills i...