The local Patients Not Passports campaign is extending its reach to Southwark with an online event tomorrow (10 March) supported by organisations including the Brixton-based Indo-American Refugee and Migrant Organisation and the South London Refugee Association.
The campaign exposes restrictions on access to healthcare and massive charges for migrants facing the government’s “hostile atmosphere”.
“We are on the way to building in Southwark the kind of broad coalition that we’ve built in Lambeth to mount pressure on King’s College Hospital to raise its voice against the hostile environment in the NHS with its harmful charging of the most vulnerable and its data sharing with the Home Office,” the campaign said.
The free online event on Thursday from 7 to 9pm will show a short film which explores the human cost of charging migrants for accessing secondary health care, followed by speakers and discussion on launching a campaign in Southwark.
Register at Eventbrite.
The film, NHS Borderlands, made by Bare Life Films, tells the story of Angela, who fled persecution in Zimbabwe, only to be subjected to hostile environment immigration policies in the UK.
She was charged £8,000 for vital medical care. Her story exposes the reality for thousands of people living in the UK who face charges for and exclusion from vital medical care, undermining the NHS’s founding commitment to universal healthcare.
Speakers include:
Kam Adiseshiah, senior immigration solicitor at Southwark Law Centre
Angela, Whose story is told in the film
Laura-Jane Smith, consultant physician King’s College Hospital
Jan O’Malley, Lambeth and Southwark Patients Not Passports.
For more information contact: lambethsouthwarkpnp@gmail.com
