A data-sharing agreement between the Home Office and the NHS to track immigration offenders has led to people becoming “too frightened” to access healthcare, MPs have heard.
An agreement used by the Home Office to make requests for non-clinical data about suspected immigration offenders from health bodies was published in January last year.
The “memorandum of understanding” sets out how information is shared as part of efforts to trace those in the country unlawfully.
The Health Select Committee heard that some undocumented migrants are avoiding seeking healthcare as a result.
Marissa Begonia, coordinator of the group Voices of Domestic Workers, told MPs that people had died after avoiding getting help.
“We have one member who died, and never sought any hospitalisation or GP because she was too frightened,” she said. “What killed her was she was frightened to access healthcare.”
Dr Lucinda Hiam, a general practitioner working for Doctors of the World, added: “In our clinic in particular there are pregnant women who are too frightened to access healthcare and that is something that really worries us.
“In one extreme circumstance we had a woman present in labour because she was too scared to go to hospital.
“In our clinic, the average time people have been in the UK before even trying to access healthcare is six years so when they present, often with conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure which can easily be managed, they’re out of control. We had to send 45 people to A&E last year.”
She added that since the memorandum was made public, Doctors of the World had to change the advice to patients in its clinic.
“We still do tell patients to register with a GP but we have to say that ‘your data might be shared’ and a lot of people now are not going,” she said.
Dr Hiam added: “I saw a woman a few weeks ago from Eritrea who had been living in this country for seven years and being kept as a slave and subjected to horrendous sexual violence. She didn’t feel able to go to a GP so that’s the atmosphere of fear we’re creating.”
Health Minister Lord O’Shaughnessy told the committee he did not believe the information-sharing arrangement should affect the doctor-patient relationship.
He said: “Information is shared for a wide variety of reasons according to tests of lawfulness and proportionality and I do not think that should affect the relationship.
“This information has been shared for decades and now has proper governance, proper rules and processes.”
Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes added: “I think it is important that we know who people are and where they are, which is why the Home Office makes a range of checks with a range of different organisations to try to identify where immigration offenders are, where they are living and where they are drawing on services.
“We do not wish to deter anybody from seeking health treatment where it is necessary but equally we have a public interest to make sure that we know where as many people are as possible.”
Charlie Massey, chief executive of the General Medical Council, said: “We have expressed our concerns to NHS Digital and the Department of Health about the impact this memorandum could have on patients’ trust in doctors and have yet to be reassured that information will only be disclosed in cases where there is a clear public interest.
“Trust is essential to the doctor-patient relationship, and confidentiality is central to that trust.
“It is a matter of public interest if patients avoid seeking medical care due to such fears.”