Health Services: EU Nationals

(asked on 2nd September 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Overseas visitor charging: no-deal Brexit guidance for NHS service providers published in April 2019, what steps NHS Trusts will have to take to determine whether EU citizens seeking healthcare after the 31 October 2019 in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal have secured Settled Status.


Answered by
Chris Skidmore Portrait
Chris Skidmore
This question was answered on 5th September 2019

In the event that the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal on 31 October 2019, the Department has advised National Health Service providers that they should continue to establish eligibility for healthcare in the same manner as they do now, including for those EU citizens who have secured Settled Status.

The Government has made clear that the rights of EU citizens in the UK on exit day will be protected, and this includes being able to access NHS care without charge on the basis that they are ordinarily resident in the UK. EU citizens already living in the UK on exit day have up until 31 December 2020 to apply for Settled Status, but their access to healthcare will remain the same regardless of whether they apply for Settled Status up to then.

No additional funding has been allocated to trusts to carry out eligibility checks for EU citizens. The Chancellor announced on 1 August that he has made an additional £2.1 billion available to prepare for EU Exit which includes the creation of an Operational Contingency Fund, to meet the costs of ‘no deal’ operations. This fund is available for bids where EU Exit operational costs arise that cannot be met by existing funding settlements.

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