Although many doctors, nurses, and foreign health-care workers struggle on the British Medical Services front without adequate personal protection, they struggle secretly on another front, they cannot afford the additional fees charged by the Ministry of the Interior to enable them to stay in the Kingdom United, and continue their work.
Debt stress
Often they fall into debt, and some leave the country at a time when they have to renew their UK licenses, as they are unable to pay money. The highest fees they face are health expenses, which should be paid in advance. Accordingly, you will find a scene in which a health services employee has to pay money to use these services, even though they pay their contributions from tax and national insurance. It is difficult for British citizens, who are not familiar with the fees imposed by the Ministry of the Interior on foreign doctors, to understand the reason for these fees when they hear about it for the first time. They are unable to understand how an employee working in health services must pay taxes twice, in order to use medical services. They say you must mean people who enter the country with a visitor visa ... Certainly, the additional fees for health services are directed to visitors, which would represent a frustration for health tourism.
Of course, I do not mean “health tourists” but rather doctors, nurses and health care workers outside the European Union who work in British health services, who spend years between the concerns of visa renewal, savings, and debt for work permit costs in the coming year. These sums should be a major obstacle, especially for doctors in the training phase, or for nurses whose salaries ranged between 18 and 23 thousand pounds annually. The fees now paid to health services are 400 pounds per year. There is no right to postpone or be able to pay at the end of the year, but must be paid in advance for the period following the year for those requesting renewal of residence or work permits.
Exorbitant fees
If the health services worker has a family in his residence permit, such as a wife or children, the applicant must also pay health service fees for them, for the duration of the stay. Accordingly, a family of four has to pay 8,000 pounds for a five-year work permit. It is expected that these fees will rise from 400 to 624 pounds by next October, as the same family of four must pay 12,480 pounds for a five-year work permit. I don’t know if there are many people in the UK, let alone junior doctors and health care workers, who have to pay such sums.
Such fees were imposed, like many punitive and selfish measures that took place in an aggressive climate by a coalition government in 2015. The amount was determined randomly, and then raised without any criteria, and we are assured that these fees benefit health services, despite It is difficult to find any evidence that confirms that the services actually benefit from these fees. This policy was aimed at restricting healthy tourism, to ensure that "the immigration system is fair for British citizens and legal immigrants."
These names mask the true nature of the victims of these fees, while giving the impression that the procedures are targeting illegal health tourists, who come to the UK and use medical services and then disappear, thereby costing the British taxpayer many millions. The government claims that the additional fees for health services are fair, when they are paid by all people who are not ordinary British citizens, a smart strategy that brings to mind the pictures of unemployed arrivals in Britain, but in reality it means the opposite, as tourists do not pay these The fees are paid by overseas citizens who work and study in the UK.
By “extraordinary British citizens”, they mean “without permanent residence,” and this category means a large number of residents and low-income people, who pay taxes, value-added tax, and national insurance. There are some people like Dr. Citi Ibrahim, a general practitioner from New Yorkshire, who are still under training. She has been educated in the UK and spent several years working in the country. She paid to renew her residency in the UK about 11,400 pounds, and had to try to give up her medical career. She says, "My heart is suspended by medical services."
The unfairness of the medical services fees became more evident, in light of the prevalence of the Coronavirus, where foreign doctors and nurses work additional periods without being paid, as they are grateful for donations of coffee and food. Without exception, those of you who have heard of them, during the past few days, and who have been asked not to speak publicly to the media about working conditions or personal protection, are happy to work these additional periods.
Without exception, all of them said that they did not know where they would bring the money, in order to pay for the renewal of their residency, especially when the value of health services fees will be raised in October, as it will be raised even to people coming from the European Union. They cannot give their names due to the anxiety they feel, but they can all be heard. There are about 153,000 non-British health services workers. The British government should completely eliminate them from health services, with immediate effect.
Nisreen Malik: Writer at The Guardian
- The government claims that the additional fees for health services are fair, when they are paid by all people who are not ordinary British citizens, and it is a clever strategy that brings to mind the images of unemployed arrivals in Britain, but in reality it means the opposite, as tourists do not pay These fees are payable by overseas citizens who work and study in the United Kingdom.
- If the health services worker has a family in his residence permit, such as a wife or children, the applicant must also pay health service fees for them, for the duration of the stay. Accordingly, a family of four has to pay 8,000 pounds for a five-year work permit.