NHS: Health Tourism Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Lord Kakkar
Main Page: Lord Kakkar (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Kakkar's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Earl Howe
My Lords, the Home Office, with our agreement, drew up a list of high-risk countries where TB was prevalent. In those countries, if someone seeks a visa to come to this country for six months or more, they will have to undergo TB testing. Questions on other medical conditions are not relevant in this context. We do not screen for other things. TB is an exceptional case because it is an airborne disease and poses a public health risk.
Lord Kakkar
My Lords, what assessment have Her Majesty’s Government made of potential future health tourism from eurozone countries facing imposed austerity measures and cuts to their own local healthcare provision?
Earl Howe
The best answer I can give the noble Lord is that this entire area of health tourism is one which we in the department are looking at extremely closely. A review has been carried out by officials and Ministers are considering the recommendations flowing from that. It is a complex set of issues but clearly the context to which the noble Lord rightly refers will need to come under the spotlight.