PM U-TURNS AGAIN: NHS FOREIGN WORKER SURCHARGE AXED
FOREIGN health and care workers will be exempted from paying a surcharge to use the NHS after another Boris Johnson U-turn.
Downing Street said the prime minister had asked officials at the Home Office and Department for Health and Social Care to remove health and care staff from the fee levied on migrants ‘as soon as possible’.
Pressure had come from the Labour Party and Conservative backbenchers, who said the surcharge was ‘immoral’, and an emotional appeal – featured on Metro’s front page – by Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad who is working as a hospital cleaner.
Last night, Mr Akkad thanked journalists and the public on Twitter for helping to change the policy.
He said: ‘Yesterday, I’m going to be honest, I lost my faith but you restored my faith and my colleagues’ faith in this country.
‘I am feeling proud and happy and grateful. Thank you. Britain is great because of you.’
A No.10 spokesman said Mr Johnson ‘has been thinking about this a great deal’ and, as a ‘personal beneficiary of carers from abroad, he understands the difficulties faced by our amazing NHS staff’.
Senior Tories had demanded a change of heart, with former party chairman Lord Patten calling the surcharge ‘ appalling’ and ‘ monstrous’. Former vice-chairman
Sir Roger Gale warned Mr Johnson that not to waive the current surcharge ‘would rightly be perceived as mean-spirited, doctrinaire and petty’.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘Boris Johnson is right to have U-turned and backed our proposal to remove the NHS charge for health professionals and care workers.
‘This is a victory for common decency and the right thing to do. We cannot clap our carers one day and then charge them to use our NHS the next.’
The health immigration surcharge of £400, rising to £624 in October, applies to all non-EU migrants. Doctors, nurses and paramedics are currently exempt from paying the charge for one year, but there was pressure for No.10 to make this permanent, and to include migrant health care workers. Those now exempt will include all NHS workers, including porters and cleaners.