Britannia Radio

Press Release

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Service under strain as ‘Migrant a minute' registers with an NHS doctor

December22, 2009

New research published today reveals the pressure that immigration is placing on the NHS.

The research, conducted by Migrationwatch, found that in 2007-8, 605,000 people who arrived from overseas registered with a GP in England and Wales – equivalent to one registration a minute, day and night, throughout the year. This was nearly 100,000 more than the inflow recorded in the International Migration Statistics for England and Wales for the same period. This suggests that short-term migrants (or illegal migrants) have also registered. Only 69,000 of the 605,000 were British people returning from a spell overseas.

The number of arrivals from overseas registering has increased by 50% in the past seven years but it is only in the last three years that registrations have exceeded the inflow of migrants. Of course migrants also leave. 333,000 left England and Wales in 2007-8 but this “churn” together with the additional population adds to the strains on the NHS.

These GP registration data are not precise as they are not compiled for statistical purposes. If anything, they understate the pressure of immigration on the National Health Service as those migrants who move practices within a year would not show up as arrivals from overseas. Furthermore, young men who make up a large proportion of migrants are known to be less likely to register with a GP than other groups.

There are no checks on the entitlement of those who seek to register with a GP, indeed doctors have discretion to register whoever they choose.

Five years ago, in May 2004, the Government issued proposals to exclude overseas visitors from eligibility to free NHS primary and medical services. The then Secretary of State promised “to ensure that the NHS is first and foremost for the benefit of residents in this country”. On 20 July 2009, five years later and on the last day of Parliament, the government issued proposals which included “to maintain GP discretion to determine registration to access free NHS primary care medical services along with the established principle that GPs may charge non-residents as private patients”.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration watch said: “This amounts to an open door to primary care which can also lead to access to secondary care. The government has been dithering while the NHS has been struggling to cope with the extra numbers resulting from mass immigration. In present financial circumstances it is surely obvious that we do not have the resources to cope with the extra ten million people now officially projected over the next 25 years – seven million as a result of immigration.

A selection of recent media reports

Foreign criminals paid to leave UK Foreign prisoners are being given bribes of £500 just for returning home. Criminals including rapists and murderers can be offered the cash in return for agreeing to go back to their home countries - as part of a package of incentives worth up to £5... Derbyshire Times (23-Dec-2009)

West Yorkshire: Five jailed over marriage scam Five people have been jailed over a bogus marriage scam after they were exposed by a suspicious registrar before a fake church... Yorkshire Evening Post (23-Dec-2009)

FOREIGN CRIMINALS HANDED £5,000 TAXPAYER-FUNDED GIFT FOREIGN criminals are being sent home with £500 cash as part of a taxpayer-funded package worth up to £5... Daily Express (23-Dec-2009)

FOREIGN CRIMINALS SHOULD BE SENT HOME ONCE again the taxpayer is being taken for a ride. Foreign criminals are being handed £500 cash cards to encourage them to leave Britain. They re free to spend the public-funded money on whatever they like as long as they do it back... Daily Star (23-Dec-2009)

FOREIGN CRIMINALS PAID TO LEAVE UK Foreign prisoners are being given bribes of £500 just for returning home. Criminals including rapists and murderers can be offered the cash in return for agreeing to go back to their home countries - as part of a package of incentives worth up to £5... Daily Star (23-Dec-2009)

DRUG-TRAFFICKERS RELEASED BY IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES TO MURDER TWO Vietnamese drug traffickers who murdered a father of three after being released by the immigration authorities were jailed for life... Daily Express (23-Dec-2009)

Bribed to quit Britain: Foreign criminals offered up to £5000 if they agree to go home Thousands of foreign criminals are being offered credit cards pre-loaded with more than £450 of taxpayers' cash if they agree to return home. Rapists, muggers and burglars are being offered the astonishing perk as part of a package worth up to £5,000 designed to 'bribe' them to leave the... Daily Mail (23-Dec-2009)

Killers bribe HUGE £5,500 state handouts being raked in by foreign lags in Scotland's jails were slammed last night as grubby BRIBES. The payments made to killers, rapists and other cons from overseas is aimed at convincing them to go back to their own countries on... Online Sun (22-Dec-2009)

Illegal immigrants 'used loophole to create sham marriages' for the right to live in Britain Illegal immigrants used a 'loophole' to bypass a government crackdown on sham marriages and pay cash to wed European women with the right to live in Britain, a court heard... Daily Mail (22-Dec-2009)

A first for the capital as Southwark Council offers affordable immigration advice service Following the arrival of more than 50,000 people in the borough over the last five years, Southwark Council has now become the first local authority in London to offer people born in other countries the full range of immigration advice... Southwark Council (22-Dec-2009)

Bogus brides & bogus grooms - receive jail sentences of 13 years for sham marriage offences Two Czech, four Nigerian and one Slovakian national, who were at the heart of an international marriage scam in West Yorkshire have today received jail sentences of 13 years (two years suspended) after pleading guilty at Leeds Crown... News Distribution Services (22-Dec-2009)

The hidden rise of HIV in the UK | Hazel Barrett | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk My research in the west Midlands with postgraduate student Betselot Mulugeta, talking to groups of immigrant men and women from the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities, has revealed serious misconceptions about the nature of the HIV/Aids epidemic in the... Guardian Unlimited - The Observer (22-Dec-2009)

Kings College of Management gets new licence after fake places scandal A college exposed by The Times for providing fake places to more than 1,000 foreign nationals has been awarded a new government licence to bring hundreds of overseas students to Britain.  Timesonline (22-Dec-2009)

Trio jailed over driving test scam A former asylum-seeker who twice arranged for a stand-in to sit his driving theory test has been jailed for six months. Kanan Fathula, an Iraqi Kurd, was convinced he wouldn't get through an exam booked for him at a centre in Sutton Coldfield, West... Lincolnshire.co.uk (22-Dec-2009)

ANGER OVER 85 MISSING FOREIGN CRIMINALS NEARLY a hundred foreign criminals freed from British jails without being considered for deportation could still be at large with the hunt for them called off, it was revealed... Sunday Express (22-Dec-2009)

FRENCH COURT GIVES MIGRANTS GO-AHEAD TO SWARM INTO UK THE battle against illegal immigration took a severe blow yesterday after a French court ruled migrants could not be deported back to their... Sunday Express (22-Dec-2009)

A migrant a minute registers with GPs: Huge increase puts doctors under pressure Immigrants are registering with a GP for free healthcare at a rate of more than one every minute, it was revealed last night. Analysis of NHS research shows that 605,000 people who arrived from overseas registered with a doctor in England and Wales last year - up by 50 per cent in only seven... Daily Mail (22-Dec-2009)

NHS registers one migrant every minute IMMIGRANTS are registering with the NHS at a rate of one every MINUTE, it can be revealed today. Some 605,000 new arrivals signed up with a GP in 2007-08 - a 50 per cent rise from 400,000 seven years... Online Sun (22-Dec-2009)

Migrants joined GP practices every minute Migrants are registering with family doctors at a rate of one a minute, leaving GP surgeries "straining at the seams" as they try to cope with the impact of rising immigration, new figures... Telegraph.co.uk (21-Dec-2009)

Afghan asylum seeker held in Calais Jungle immigrant camp is 'freed by French court to try to get to Britain' A British-bound migrant has dodged deporation to Afghanistan because it violates his right to claim asylum in France in a ruling by the country's highest... Daily Mail (21-Dec-2009)