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stella41b -> RE: Illegal immigrants face NHS block (12/2/2007 7:55:04 PM)
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This is a European Union thing... I've experienced it in Poland, where you need your insurance card. No insurance card, no treatment, unless you pay. Doesn't matter how ill you are, no card no treatment. There was a big stink in 2004 when the NFZ (the Polish Health Trust) refused to treat an Englishman in a casualty department even though he didn't need insurance because he didn't have a card. He died. The British Consulate got involved and the NFZ against its will issued a directive that all EU citizens must be given free medical treatment in an emergency.
It looks like the NHS is tightening up to follow the same line as other European Union countries.
I don't see much of a conflict. Anyone walking into a hospital or a GP surgery requiring 'primary' health care should get it free of charge. I don't care whether they're British, European Union citizens, or other immigrants, legal or illegal. If they need medical treatment they should have access to it, and cost shouldn't even be mentioned. The NHS is as British as Buckingham Palace, this is our beacon in the world of human rights. I feel it should be protected as such.
If we can pay huge sums to the Royal Family, if we can invest billions of pounds into building state of the art stadia for events like the Olympics in 2012, and if we can cover astronomical costs with our overseas military actions then I'm sure we can find the money for the NHS.
Oh dear.. I'm sorry, I forgot. This is Britain. Our government can only find the money when it goes to promoting corporate interests. But when it comes to the man in the street there's erm.. well... erm.. no money.
This is just another example. Yet again blame the citizen, not the system.
I think this way because most people assume that an immigrant is illegal by choice, that it's their fault. If people think this way I suggest very strongly they pay a visit to Lunar House in Croydon and talk to the immigrants there about their experiences on getting a UK visa. The NRD or UK Immigration Service is the closest thing you can find in Europe to the Gestapo. It is arbitrary, unfair, and these civil 'servants' (I use this in a looser definition than the dictionary) feel themselves to be above the law.
I'm writing here about the 'illegal immigrants' who have been waiting two years for a new one year visa, and about the majority who have to wait over a year for any sort of visa. However if your name is Manuel Ebobo and you are a top Nigerian striker who's just be signed for Chelsea or Whitney Houston giving a concert in London the visa gets sorted within days, even hours.
Try Terminal 3 at London Heathrow airport, where I've spent time as a duty translator for Polish gypsies who were seeking asylum. Watch as they pick out people coming into the country on long haul flights, especially flights coming in from the US. If you don't look right you get picked out, and Lord help you if you haven't got your documents in order or you piss the civil servant off.
In Britain we have brilliant politicians who appear to have the knack of seeing the problem but reforming something completely unconnected with the problem. Pick the party, look back over 25 years and you'll see it, time and time again.
Our immigration policies have been needing urgent reform for over 20 years.
I find it funny how a government can reform the welfare benefits system and tighten it up, how they can tighten up other services but when it comes to immigration they're clueless and incompetent.
Or is it really incompetence?
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