NHS commits to removing barriers for migrants accessing healthcare as part of South London Listens
Migrants and those seeking sanctuary in England have the right to access primary healthcare, such as GP appointments. However, in practice people from these groups can face barriers to receiving the care to which they are legally entitled.
South London Listens, Citizens UK and Doctors of the World hosted an online Safer Surgeries summit on 10 May, which brought together almost 100 community and NHS leaders to explore how to remove barriers to primary healthcare access for migrants in south London.
The event was held to take forward key commitments made by NHS and local authority leaders as part of the South London Listens programme.
South London Listens was launched in 2020 in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of our communities. In partnership with Citizens UK, the programme listened to over 6,000 people to develop four key priorities. One of which focuses on equitable access to mental health services for migrants, refugees and diaspora communities.
Migrants can sometimes find themselves turned away from accessing primary healthcare because they do not have a fixed address, they lack documents such as passports, or they are learning English and struggle to communicate with GP practice staff.
Safer Surgeries, a network run by Doctors of the World, enables GP practices to commit to tackling these barriers. Almost 1,400 GP practices have signed up as Safe Surgeries across England and in south London, over 200 GP surgeries, roughly 50% of practices, have made the initial commitment to sign up as a Safe Surgery. Dr Shazia Munir, a Lambeth GP who specialises in health inclusion, emphasised the value of the Safe Surgeries initiative: “It’s brilliant that the Safe Surgeries scheme is being implemented, but I think it’s really important that this continues and is rolled out to all GP practices if possible, as it really makes a huge difference to those individual patients.”
At the summit, individuals with lived experience of healthcare barriers shared stories about the challenges they have faced and leaders from Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in south east and south west London listened to recommendations on how the system could be improved.
Jun Lian, a Mandarin teacher, English for Speakers of Other Languages student, and Creating Ground member summarised the barriers: “In my English class and community group, I have met women who don’t speak English very well and who have had problems registering with a GP, because they don’t have a passport or address, or they are temporarily living with their friends. Sometimes we have to do phone appointments, but we can’t explain what we need clearly on the phone.”
Similarly, Karen Harris from Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network shared her frustration at being turned away by a GP surgery for lacking documentation: “I still needed to bring my papers. It felt like I was applying for a job. At that moment, it clicked for me that I wasn’t going to go far in England. Because if this was just the doctor, how did the rest of society view me?”
At the Summit. both South East and South West London ICBs committed to delivering a plan to remove barriers to healthcare access for migrants by March 2024. This includes promises to work with community leaders to co-produce and disseminate a patient advocacy guide so migrants can better understand their healthcare rights; embed Safe Surgery champions at a local level to support and encourage GP practices to enact safer surgery guidance; and exploring the establishment of a cross-borough network so surgeries can support each other on work around health inequalities.
Representing South East London ICB, Dr Sam Hepplewhite, Director of Partnerships and Prevention said: “Hearing first-hand about the consequences on migrant communities is an important part of the vital conversation we need to have across our GP practices to improve access. We are absolutely committed to working across our Boroughs to make sure that we get as many practices as possible to Safe Surgeries.
South West London ICB representative Attracta Asika, Head of Transformation, said: “I have been honestly humbled to be here and hear these lived experiences,” affirming that “registering with a GP is a fundamental right” and “nobody in South West London should be refused registration for any reason…we will work together to get that done.”
Sophie Gregory from Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network and Lucie Vyhnálková from English for Action, who acted as co-chairs for the summit, celebrated the commitment from NHS leaders: “agreements made at the summit signal that there’s deep buy-in around this issue to make a tangible difference to thousands of our community members.”
Our ambition is for all South London surgeries to be Safe Surgeries. Practices can sign up here to receive training and resources from Doctors of the World.