Patients Not Passports
Migrants Organise has seen dozens of our members’ lives destroyed by encroachment of Hostile Environment immigration policies into the National Health Service (NHS). The policies include charging migrants upfront for healthcare upfront, restricting access to care and sharing patient data with the Home Office.
In 2017, Docs Not Cops began a healthcare worker-led direct action and awareness campaign to oppose migrant charging in the NHS. We joined this work and together launched the Patients Not Passports (PNP) campaign, alongside Medact and the New Economics Foundation. In 2019, we launched the PNP toolkit to help you advocate for people being charged for or denied NHS care because of their immigration status. The campaign works for a repeal of all hostile environment policies in the NHS and for a truly universal healthcare system that’s accessible for all. There are now more than 15 local groups working under the banner of ‘Patients Not Passports’ across the country.
The PNP campaign works with migrant communities, healthcare workers, trade unions, NHS campaigners, Royal Colleges, MPs, and NHS Trusts to build the broadest possible coalition demanding change. Reversing the policy can only be realised through a broad-based movement that brings together and mobilises people across the country, and relying on a variety of tactics.
Migrants Organise also works with the PNP Campaign Network to coordinate the Vaccines for All Campaign, which calls on the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that everyone has access to the coronavirus vaccine, regardless of immigration status, ID or proof of address. So far, over 375 organisations have signed the call for Vaccines for All.
In our work we:
Create campaigning materials, resources and trainings to support local campaigners, organisers and healthcare workers: www.patientsnotpassports.co.uk
Coordinate the Patients Not Passports campaigners network and support groups working for an end to migrant charging across the country
Undertake research that reveals the harms of Government policies, and the strategies by which it can best be confronted
Build community campaigns with members directly impacted by hostile environment policies in the NHS, including the Justice for Simba campaign
Provide support, signposting and advocacy for members facing exclusions from healthcare and impacted by NHS charging
Run online actions and national mobilisations that get people out onto the streets demanding an end to the hostile environment
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Get involved
If you would like to get involved, contact our Access to Healthcare organiser Aliya Yule on aliya@migrantsorganise.org
