The proposal to double the Immigration Health Surcharge has been criticised by the RCN.
Subject to a vote in Parliament, this would mean that from 2019, non-EEA nationals will be required to pay £400 for each family member for every year of their working visa to use the NHS.
‘These nurses already contribute financially through National Insurance and taxation, not to mention the work they do to care for us and our loved ones,’ said Dame Donna Kinnair, Acting RCN Chief Executive. ‘These fees can tear families apart, separating mother from child. Our health services depend on professionals from around the world, but the Government has now signalled they are no longer welcome.’
The RCN has set up an online tool to find and email your MP asking them to write to Sajid Javid MP, Home Secretary, to urge him to waive the Immigration Health Surcharge for non-EEA nursing staff.
‘We will be lobbying the House of Lords to send a message to the Government that this morally bankrupt decision is completely unacceptable, especially in light of the recent Windrush scandal,’ added Dame Kinnair. ‘The very people who deliver health care should be the last people to have to pay spiralling extra charges for it. We will continue the fight to have these charges waived for nursing staff.’