Refugee and Asylum Health

COURT OF APPEAL JUDGMENT IN ‘R (YA) –v- SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH

'Medact regrets that the judgement about entitlement to healthcare by Justice Mittings in April 2008 has been overturned.

'Many people, including failed asylum seekers, are unable to return to their countries of origin. Insisting that hospitals charge impoverished people may deter them from seeking healthcare and could result in greater expense to the health service when their condition deteriorates. We reject the use of healthcare as a means of managing immigration.

'However Medact welcomes the appeal court’s ruling that all patients, irrespective of their immigration status, who need urgent or immediate healthcare, should receive it.

'Health professionals must be able to carry out their ethical duty to provide care for sick people rather than to have to administer immigration laws.

The NHS must be able to treat patients both to avoid unnecessary suffering and in the interests of public health'.

Transcript of full judgment available as download