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NHS will no longer have to share immigrants' data with Home Office NHS will no longer have to share immigrants' data with Home Office
(about 3 hours later)
Ministers are suspending controversial arrangements under which the NHS shares patients’ details with the Home Office so they can trace people breaking immigration rules. Ministers have suspended controversial arrangements under which the NHS shared patients’ details with the Home Office so it could trace people breaking immigration rules.
The government’s U-turn on a key element of its “hostile environment” approach to immigration came after MPs, doctors’ groups and health organisations warned that the practice was stopping some patients from seeking NHS care for medical problems. The government’s U-turn on a key element of its “hostile environment” approach to immigration came after MPs, doctors’ groups and health charities warned that the practice was scaring some patients from seeking NHS care for medical problems.
Margot James, minister for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is due to announce the rethink during today’s parliamentary debate on the data protection bill. She will confirm that the government is suspending the memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which NHS Digital, the health service’s statistical arm, shared 3,000 NHS patients’ details with the Home Office last year so they could check those people’s immigration status. Margot James, a minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, announced the rethink during a parliamentary debate on the data protection bill. She confirmed that the government had decided to suspend “with immediate effect” the memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which NHS Digital, the health service’s statistical arm, shared 3,000 NHS patients’ details with the Home Office last year so they could check those people’s immigration status. Patients had given their details when attending GP and hospital appointments.
From now on, the data-sharing mechanism will only be used to help the Home Office trace individuals who are being considered for deportation from Britain because they have committed a serious crime, James will tell MPs. In future, Home Office immigration staff would only be able to use the data-sharing mechanism to trace people who are being considered for deportation from Britain because they have committed a serious crime, James made clear to MPs.
James paved the way for the U-turn by accepting an amendment, tabled by Labour MP Dr Paul Williams, which suspended the data-sharing MOU. The practice was risking the lives of patients, left so afraid of being traced by immigration officials that they shunned NHS care when they fell ill, said Williams, a member of the Commons health select committee. James paved the way for the U-turn by accepting an amendment, tabled by Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston and Labour MP Paul Williams, which called for the MOU to be suspended.
The change of tack comes after the committee twice called, in unusually strong terms, in January and April for the MOU to be set aside because it is unethical and damages patients’ trust in the NHS. Williams, who is also a GP, welcomed “this huge U-turn”, adding: “NHS information should only be shared in the event of a conviction or an investigation for a serious crime, not to create a hostile environment where people are afraid to go to their GPs for fear information might be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions for benefit sanctions.”
Critics warned that passing patients’ details on to the Home Office risked turning NHS staff into border guards, ruining patients’ relationships with NHS personnel and deterring some people from accessing NHS care. The government backtracked after MPs on the Commons health and social care select committee twice called in unusually strong terms, in January and April, for data-sharing to stop. During evidence on the MOU’s impact it heard how one pregnant woman did not seek any antenatal care because she was too frightened to attend appointments. NHS staff only found out that she was expecting when she turned up at hospital already in labour. Another woman, a migrant domestic worker, died after not seeking treatment for a persistent cough, the committee heard.
Wednesday’s move comes amid growing concern that staff in some public services, including teachers and the NHS, are being turned into border guards because of new duties put on them to check the immigration status of people they encounter. For example, hospital trusts have been obliged since last October to check that patients are eligible to receive many, but not all, types of care for free and demand that those deemed ineligible pay for their treatment in advance. Doctors of the World, a London-based charity that provides free healthcare for refugees, asylum-seekers and other undocumented migrants, welcomed the move. “For too long the Home Office has undermined doctor-patient trust and caused unnecessary fear and harm to people most in need of help. Our volunteer doctors saw every day the damage this deal was doing to people in vulnerable situations, including victims of trafficking and pregnant women”, said Lucy Jones, its director of programmes.
In March, the Guardian revealed that the NHS’s Royal Marsden cancer hospital in London had told a Jamaican-born London man who had lived in the UK for 44 years to pay £54,000 upfront before he could undergo radiotherapy to treat his prostate cancer. Deborah Gold, chief executive of the National Aids Trust (NAT), said: “We are delighted that at last this shameful sharing of confidential patient information with the Home Office is to end.” However, the NAT and Liberty, the civil rights group, both voiced concern about the “vague” definition of serious crimes that the Home Office will use when still pursuing personal details.
The committee demanded action after hearing that migrants had become scared to visit hospital or a GP in case their personal details ended up with the Home Office. Critics warned that passing patients’ details on to the Home Office risked turning NHS staff into de facto immigration officers, was ruining patients’ relationships with NHS personnel and deterring some people from accessing NHS care.
Doctors of the World, a London-based charity that provides free healthcare for refugees, asylum-seekers and other undocumented migrants, told the committee how one pregnant woman received no antenatal care because she was too frightened to attend appointments. NHS staff only found out that she was expecting when she turned up at hospital when she was already in labour. Another woman, a migrant domestic worker, died after not seeking treatment for a persistent cough, the committee heard. The select committee called for the MOU to be scrapped because it is unethical and damaged patients’ trust in the NHS. Williams, a member of the committee, had previously warned that people left afraid to access care because of data-sharing posed a risk to public health through conditions such as tuberculosis going untreated and children not receiving vital vaccinations.
Sharing patients’ details is unethical, in breach of doctors’ duty to respect their patients’ confidentiality and also a potential risk to public health, the committee warned. The Home Office said: “After careful consideration of the concerns raised by the health and social care select committee, the circumstances in which the Home Office will request data from the NHS has changed with immediate effect.
“The changes mean that data will be requested to locate foreign national offenders we intend to deport who have been given a prison sentence of 12 months or more and others who present a risk to the public.
“We remain committed to tackling illegal immigration and will continue to trace immigration offenders using a range of different investigative measures.”
The U-turn comes amid growing concern that staff in some public services, including teachers, housing officials and NHS workers, are being turned into border guards because of new duties put on them to check the immigration status of people they encounter. For example, hospital trusts have been obliged since last October to check that patients are eligible to receive many, but not all, types of care for free and demand that those deemed ineligible pay for their treatment in advance.
In March, the Guardian revealed that the NHS’s Royal Marsden cancer hospital in London had told a Jamaican-born London man who had lived in the UK for 44 years to pay £54,000 upfront before he could undergo radiotherapy to treat his prostate cancer. Sylvester Marshall, who was previously known as Albert Thompson, is now due to receive his treatment free on the NHS.
The British Medical Association, which has also voiced deep unease about sharing of patients’ data, had also called for James to accept the Williams-sponsored clause. The MOU “falls short of the well-established ethical, professional and legal standards for confidentiality”, it said.The British Medical Association, which has also voiced deep unease about sharing of patients’ data, had also called for James to accept the Williams-sponsored clause. The MOU “falls short of the well-established ethical, professional and legal standards for confidentiality”, it said.
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 allowed for patients’ details, which they had provided confidentially to the NHS, to be used to help trace immigration offenders. It led to the signing of the MOU between NHS Digital, the Home Office and the Department of Health. Last year it led to more than 3,000 patients having their details passed to the Home Office for its immigration purposes. Of those, 195 requests for data led to the Home Office finding out new information about people.The Health and Social Care Act 2012 allowed for patients’ details, which they had provided confidentially to the NHS, to be used to help trace immigration offenders. It led to the signing of the MOU between NHS Digital, the Home Office and the Department of Health. Last year it led to more than 3,000 patients having their details passed to the Home Office for its immigration purposes. Of those, 195 requests for data led to the Home Office finding out new information about people.
Earlier this year, Williams called the MOU an “ill-conceived arrangement”. He added:“The suffering that would-be patients experience when they avoid NHS services that they can no longer trust is harming the NHS’s ability to function. The integrity of the NHS is under threat. Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt, the health and social care secretary, has come close to backing calls from leading doctors and Labour for NHS staff to be exempted from the monthly cap on the number of skilled workers from overseas who are allowed to come to the UK.
“When people are too afraid to access care, there is a risk to public health from untreated conditions like tuberculosis and from unvaccinated children. There will be an additional cost to the NHS when a small unmanaged infection becomes a pneumonia requiring hospitalisation, or poorly treated diabetes causes emergency complications.” Having a separate system of visas for doctors and nurses, he said, was “a really interesting idea” that he will discuss with Sajid Javid, the home secretary. The cap has led to 400 doctors being denied permission to join the NHS since December, despite having job offers from hospitals, because the cap had been reached.
“It’s invidious when the NHS gets traded off against other sectors in the economy,” Hunt told the Health Service Journal.
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