Refused asylum seekers are increasingly having accessing NHS healthcare - this is despite many of them having health issues due to their treatment before, or subsequent to, their escape - this is creating a number of problems:

* denying vulnerable people the chance to identify serious & sometimes life-threatening conditions which need immediate treatment

* contributing to maternal & infant mortality by delaying or preventing access to maternity care

* condemning many children to a life without primary healthcare, inevitably resulting for some in serious illness & death

* increasing the likelihood of serious communicable diseases such as TB & HIV going undiagnosed & being transmitted - endangering public health

* removing an important source of support for women who are experiencing domestic abuse

* increase otherwise avoidable costs to the NHS resulting from late diagnosis & additional administration, & increasing avoidable admissions to hospital

* overburdening Accident & Emergency Departments both with those who should be treated (at significantly less cost) in primary care & with those who have become seriously ill because primary care was unavailable

* denying GPs their current discretion to judge how best to meet the healthcare needs of their local population

* breaching basic international human rights obligations of the UK & entrenching discrimination in the NHS

Follow this link www.ipetitions.com/petition/access?e (or click on the link in the grey Links box on the right) to sign the online petition to support vulnerable refused asylum seekers accessing NHS healthcare

Tags: Asylum, Healthcare, Medical //