Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to implement the recommendations of (a) the WHO and (b) UNHCR on ensuring that everyone can access healthcare (i) without charge and (ii) safely during the covid-19 outbreak.

Patient safety remains a priority for the National Health Service and has been a key element of the Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regulations came into force on 29 January 2020 to add Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (now known as COVID-19) to the list of infectious diseases within Schedule 1 of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015. This means everyone, including all overseas visitors and migrants, can already access testing and treatment for COVID-19 without charge.

To help ensure that no one is deterred from safely accessing healthcare for COVID-19, this information has been widely communicated to NHS staff and the public and has been translated into 40 languages.