Non-EU patients ‘should be charged for GP services’
6 December 2015
From the section Health
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Overseas visitors should be forced to pay for using some GP services as well as ambulances and A&E care, the government says.
It would save £500m a year and ensure such patients made a fair contribution, the health secretary said.
Earlier in the year, the government indicated it intended to charge for A&E and ambulance care, but this has now been extended to some GP services too.
Doctors’ leaders said GPs should not act as “immigration control”.
Under the proposals, refugees and asylum seekers would be exempt from charges, and no-one would be denied emergency care at the point of need, the government said. A consultation will start on Monday.
Blood tests
Visitors from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) – which covers the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – already pay for planned non-urgent hospital care.
We want to make sure that everyone makes a fair contribution to services…Jeremy Hunt, …read more
Source:: BBC UK
