New regulations with regards to NHS charging of patients not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom (UK) are to come into force in April 2017. The new changes would be an onus on hospitals to undertake necessary checks to establish a patient’s chargeable status i.e. if the patient is eligible for free NHS care or not.
An ordinarily resident is defined in Shah v Barnet LBC [1983] 1 ALL ER 266:
A person would be ordinary resident in the UK if they are “living lawfully in the United Kingdom voluntarily and for settled purposes as part of the regular order of their life for the time being, whether of short or long duration”.
The new regulations would impose a duty for all hospitals to charge upfront costs to all ‘chargeable’ patients, but only with regards to non-urgent planned care. The changes would assist the NHS in working more efficiently being able to identify and record a patient’s chargeable status. The government’s objective is to recover up to £500 million a year between 2017 – 2018 from ‘chargeable’ patients by addressing charging issues at the onset – recoup costs where applicable, increase the income of the NHS and reinvest back into patient care.
A number of migrants are already contributing to the NHS through the introduction of the immigration health surcharge on 06 April 2015:
“An immigration health charge (or ‘surcharge’) is now payable by non-EEA nationals who apply for a visa to enter or remain in the UK for more than 6 months. People with indefinite leave to remain in the UK and those not subject to immigration control (e.g. diplomats posted to the UK) are not liable to pay the surcharge, but may be ordinarily resident here and entitled to free NHS healthcare on that basis.
Payment of the health surcharge entitles the payer to NHS-funded healthcare on the same basis as someone who is ordinarily resident, from the date their visa is granted and for as long as it remains valid. They are entitled to free NHS services, including NHS hospital care, except for services for which a UK ordinary resident must also pay, such as dentistry and prescriptions in England.
Payment of the health surcharge is mandatory when making an immigration application, subject to exemptions for certain categories of people and the discretion of the Home Secretary to reduce, waive or refund all or part of a surcharge payment. Most of these groups also receive NHS-funded healthcare on the same basis as an ordinarily resident person.”
In light of the above, the new regulation would affect non-EEA nationals who are in the UK on a valid visitor’s visa and migrants who are in the UK illegally. Such persons, as of April 2017, would be charged upfront for using medical services provided by the NHS in respect of non-urgent planned care as they would be deemed as ‘chargeable’ patients. Migrants who are duly contributing to NHS by paying the requisite immigration health surcharge as well as persons who are ordinarily resident in the UK would not be affected by the new regulations as they are not categorised as ‘chargeable’ patients.
For more information about this please contact Dionne Russell on 02477710235 or email dionne.russell@alsterskelley.com