27 November 2012

If you thought that the NHS stood for National Health Service, think again. Since last July it has become the International Health Service but paid for, of course, out of your taxes.

That was when the government sneaked out new instructions to family doctors with no public announcement and certainly no debate.

Doctors must now accept on their lists any foreign visitor who is here for more than 24 hours. They must also accept any illegal immigrant who cares to apply.

It is hard to think of a more open invitation to health tourists both from developing countries and from rich countries like the United States where health care is both private and very expensive.

It is very different in most EU countries where you have to pay for £20,000 worth of health insurance before you can apply for even a tourist visa. If they can police access to their health services, why can’t we?

It is astonishing that the government should have agreed to this at a time when the NHS is struggling. The Health Service gets no extra money to cope with rising medical costs, nor the growing number of elderly people who are most likely to need treatment.

We think that this is incredibly unfair to British tax payers. It is the very last thing they need as their money gets scarcer. That is why we have written to the Prime Minister today asking him to get the government to think again. These absurd instructions must be cancelled straightaway.


Please download the PDF file for a copy of the letter to the Prime Minister 


Back