Date Published: 30 March 2009

New guidance on access to healthcare for failed asylum-seekers needed

Commenting today on the Appeal Court's ruling on access to secondary care for failed asylum seekers, the BMA's Head of Science and Ethics, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, said:

"Today's ruling has provided some clarification on this issue but there are still outstanding questions and the BMA will need to read the ruling in detail before responding fully.

Our initial thoughts are that there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the lawfulness of providing hospital treatment for this very vulnerable group of people. This will only be resolved once the Department of Health re-writes its guidance.”

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