Maternity Action wouldn't deny that that there are other areas where people need emergency care. As an organisation campaigning in the area of maternity, it focuses on the consequences of charging for maternity care and, in doing so, it points to many instances where women are charged either invalidly or excessively. Doing so may also prompt action by other organisations in relation to other areas of health care.
Alison
-----Original Message-----
From: John Whittington [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 July 2018 01:02
To: Macfarlane, Alison; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: charging for maternity care
At 11:00 10/07/2018, Macfarlane, Alison wrote:
>Yes, the same people are chargeable for any care, with a very few
>exceptions, such as HIV and there have been some awful reports of
>people who have been We agree that care should be related to need,
>not ability to pay. The particular difference with maternity care is
>that if a woman is labour, she can't postpone the care until she can
>get some money together.
That's what I presumed.
What you mention as a "particular difference with maternity care" is,
in fact, presumably equally true of any emergency or urgent
situation. A person with severe bleeding or broken bones, having a
heart attack, stroke or even 'just' an episode of renal colic cannot
"postpone their care until they can get some money together", and nor
is it desirable that treatment of cancer, diabetes or whatever should
be postponed "until the patient can get some money together". I
therefore don't think that maternity care is anything like a 'special case.
I don't really know what actually happens in practice, but I can but
presume that the NHS would not literally "turn away" a women in
labour or suffering from a complication of pregnancy, or a person who
was bleeding severely or having a heart attack, because they were
'not entitled' to free NHS care but had no apparent ability to
pay. I'm not sure that that even happens in the US.
The problem is, of course, that whilst we want NHS care to be based
on need, rather than ability to pay, we do not want to have/encourage
a situation in which people from overseas travel to the UK
specifically to obtain 'free' NHS care (whether maternity care or
anything else), not the least because that diminishes the resources
available for giving need-based care to those who actually 'deserve' it.
Kind Regards,
John
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Mediscience Services Fax: +44 (0) 1296 738893
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Buckingham MK18 4EL, UK
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