The Royal College of Nursing, in its super-polite way, has written a letter to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, asking her to make sure that those risking their lives for us in the NHS, should not have to pay punitive extra charges if they become ill themselves. For NHS workers have been surcharged for NHS treatment since 2015, if they have come from overseas. There is a petition “How can we expect nurses to come to Britain and fill our NHS vacancies, risk their lives when they have to pay £11,000 to use – the NHS?” which you can sign if you wish: http://chng.it/mkPN7jmwzm.
Doctors, nurses and paramedics have now been granted a one-year exemption. One year! But Dominic Raab said on Monday (18th May) that there were no plans to extend even the one year exemption to care workers. The Royal College of Nursing would be entirely justified if they decided to call for a strike or work to rule until this unfair surcharge is removed permanently, as indeed would the unions representing all health related workers, including the porters, caterers and cleaners (whose employment in most cases is contracted out under privatisation introduced by Thatcher). But if nurses and other health workers feel unable to strike (especially now, which no doubt the Government are counting on) other unions could take action in support of all health and care workers!
Maya Goodfellow, author of the book Hostile Environment (Verso, 2019), wrote in the Guardian yesterday (19.05.20): “By asking them to pay twice for healthcare, the government is betraying the very people it applauds so publicly”. She pointed out that the British Medical Association has consistently been saying that all healthcare workers should be exempt from the immigration health surcharge. They are already paying tax and national insurance like everyone else. So they are paying twice for NHS treatment.
All the other political parties have opposed this surcharge.
Today in Parliament, Keir Starmer raised the issue again in Prime Minister’s Questions, pointing out that a care home worker would have to work a 70 hour week to make enough to pay the surcharge. I was watching the BBC broadcast, and heard Johnson say, of course, lots of stuff about the wonderful NHS, and the overseas workers that saved his life. But on the key point about them paying hundreds of pounds extra to use the NHS, in which they are risking their lives to work, Johnson had the gall to say “the NHS needs another £900 million from such sources”. I am not quite sure what the other sources of the £900m were, besides the surcharge from overseas workers, that he had in mind, but this was utterly shocking and disgraceful. I also had the pleasure of seeing the Speaker of the House, Lindsay Hoyle, threaten to throw Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health) out of the House for speaking over Keir Starmer, which has now been reported in the papers for tomorrow.
Vivien Walsh, Manchester