The petition
We the undersigned strongly oppose the proposal that General Practitioners, and other primary care staff, be forced to charge refused asylum seekers or other undocumented migrants for NHS care. Any such requirement would:
* Deny vulnerable and often destitute individuals the chance to identify serious and sometimes life-threatening conditions which need immediate treatment
* Contribute to maternal and infant mortality by delaying or preventing access to maternity care
* Condemn many children to a life without primary healthcare, inevitably resulting for some in serious illness and death
* Increase the likelihood of serious communicable diseases such as TB and HIV going undiagnosed and being transmitted, thus endangering public health
* Remove an important source of support for women experiencing domestic abuse
* Increase avoidable costs to the NHS resulting from late diagnosis and additional administration, and increase avoidable admissions to hospital
* Overburden Accident and Emergency Departments both with those who should be treated (at significantly less cost) in primary care and with those who have become seriously ill because primary care was unavailable
* Deny GPs their current discretion to judge how best to meet the healthcare needs of their local population
* Breach basic international human rights obligations of the UK and entrench discrimination in the NHS
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