This petition was submitted during the 2015-2017 Conservative government
Petition Revoke bedside charges for patients in NHS.
For 69 years the NHS has been a shining example to the world of high quality universal and comprehensive healthcare, free at the point of use.
The introduction of charges to non-EEA citizens will eliminate the NHS as we know it.
Doctors' priority is to treat patients, not to act as border guards.
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Our NHS is in grave danger, not because of health tourists, but because of a market system, private sector inefficiency and crippling PFI debts. Checking the identity of patients to recoup <0.5% of the budget from health tourists will be expensive and costly with minimal benefit. It will also encourage inequality of provision, poorer clinical outcomes, racial profiling and will undermine the professional duties healthcare professionals must abide by.
Doctors and nurses demand this is revoked.
This petition closed early because of a General Election Find out more on the Petitions Committee website