‘THE GOVERNMENT should immediately suspend charging for NHS maternity care,’ for non-UK residents, concludes a new report released yesterday from Maternity Action.
The report, called ‘What Price Safe Motherhood? Charging for NHS Maternity Care in England and its Impact on Migrant Women,’ states that ‘charging has a deterrent effect on women’s access to maternity care which poses risks to their pregnancies and the health of their babies.
‘Anxiety about charging has an adverse effect on maternal mental health with consequent effects on women’s pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes. ‘Although all maternity care is designated as immediately necessary, this does not compensate for the anxiety women feel knowing that they are unable to repay very high charges.’
The horrific problems which occur when charging pregnant women for their maternity care are vividly described in the report. One case describes the crisis ‘Natasha’ faced. She entered the UK on a student visa after fleeing from sexual and physical abuse in the Caribbean.
Despite living in the country for 19 years, her immigration status remained unsettled.
Because of this, she is not entitled to free NHS care, so when she suffered a miscarriage in the 19th week of her pregnancy she ended up with a bill of £3,500. She was supposed to attend follow-up medical appointments but was too afraid of incurring further charges to do so.
‘At times my period is so painful,’ ‘Natasha’ says. ‘I feel cramps when I sit down. When I get up I can hardly walk sometimes. ‘But the clots, a lot of clots … I am scared to go to the hospital because I don’t know how I will be able to pay on top of this bill.’
One week she gets a letter inviting her to attend a clinic for support coping with the miscarriage. The next she receives one from a debt collector demanding payment of her NHS bill.
