SUSPENSION OF NHS OVERSEAS VISITORS CHARGING REGIME FOR MATERNITY CARE

That this House is concerned by the growing body of evidence, including research reports by Doctors of the World, Maternity Action and the BMA, that the NHS England overseas visitors charging regime is deterring vulnerable migrant women living in the UK from seeking essential maternity care, and is resulting in some women being wrongly denied maternity care and wrongly told that they have to pay in advance; is further concerned by the conclusion of Maternity Action's September 2019 report, Duty of care: midwives' experience of the NHS charging regime, that charging has a pronounced effect on midwives' ability to look after women in their care; notes that in December 2018, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Faculty of Public Health published a joint statement calling for the suspension of the charging regime; further notes that in March 2019, the heads of the Academy of Royal Colleges, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Midwives and others wrote jointly to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to urge him to suspend the charging regime pending a full independent review of its effect on individual and public health; and urges the Government to respond positively to Maternity Action’s call, supported by the Royal College of Midwives, for the immediate suspension of charging for NHS maternity care.