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A 73-year-old said she was put through “three months of hell” by the NHS after they challenged her right to live in the UK and sent her a charge for a routine health appointment.
Soisic Calland, who is a French national, has lived in Scunthorpe for some 45 years and has long-term residency status in the UK. Despite giving birth to three children at Scunthorpe general hospital, she said that she was interrogated by staff about her immigration status when she went to an appointment there with a Rheumatology consultant in April this year.
She was in some pain and waiting to be seen by a doctor when she was called over by an admin worker and questioned about her visa status, she explained. “I was almost in tears and I was very near walking out. My husband, who was with me made me stay, and I did see the consultant in the end.
“I was taken into a corner and I was in pain and interrogated and told to shut up. The hospital worker didn’t want the documents that I was giving her. It felt like she was determined to make me pay”.
The hospital said they did not accept this description of Ms Callard’s interactions with staff and said it was for patients to prove their eligibility to free NHS care.
Ms Callard said she provided her biometric residency card, which is given to EU nationals who have been living in the UK since before 1989 through the Windrush scheme. Foreign nationals like Ms Callard who are settled in the UK, what’s known as being ordinarily resident, are entitled to free NHS care.
After the transition to digital visas at the end of last year, Ms Callard set up an online UKVI account, which is used to demonstrate her immigration status in the UK.
The hospital wanted to see a council tax bill from after Brexit in 2021, but wouldn’t initially accept the bill, which had her husband’s name on it, Ms Callard said. Full council tax bills are based on at least two adults living in the home, and spouses who live together are jointly responsible for paying the bill.
She said that when her and her husband got home from the appointment they rang up their local council for help. “The council couldn’t understand what we wanted, and why the hospital wanted it. But they put us through to the electoral registration department who were helpful and provided proof that I have been at our home address since at least 2016.
“However that was also refused. I gave the hospital my biometric card, driving licence, phone bill, bank statements, and my GHIC card [a card provided by the NHS to UK residents to allow them to access emergency treatment in Europe]. I couldn’t provide any household bills because they were in my husband’s name.
“Nothing was good enough. Then in August I got sent a proforma invoice for £536.02. I couldn’t understand what I had been charged for. It was very threatening.
“Then suddenly, after all that, they accepted the council tax bill.”
The proforma invoice said that “payment is due immediately” but that “final costings [are] to be confirmed”. It added that “the hospital takes action to recover unpaid debt”, and warned that outstanding debt may impact future immigration applications.
The hospital said that they send a proforma invoice when they have not received the relevant documents confirming eligibility for free NHS treatment. They said that national policy requires patients to show proof of ordinary residence in the UK, and they were able to confirm this after the council tax bill was supported by a letter from the council.
The three months of back and forth have caused her a lot of stress, Ms Callard said. “I’ve had endless sleepless nights. My blood pressure shot up. I felt like I wasn’t wanted in England. I had three months of hell and I don’t want anyone to go through the same. I would like to avoid this situation happening to other people, who might not be fluent in English, and who don’t have the background that I’ve had.”
Ms Callard, who has a French passport, said she has not applied for a British passport because it costs thousands of pounds to become a British citizen, something she doesn’t want to spend her pension money on.
She added: “It was very distressing for my husband and I because we were wondering every day what was going to come next, and what threats we were going to have”.
A spokesperson for Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust said: “We follow the stringent guidelines set out in the Department of Health’s Overseas Charging Regulations which we are legally obliged to follow to ensure that only those people who are not eligible to free NHS care receive an invoice. Patients can raise a concern with our Patient Advice and Liaison Service, so if she requires any further assistance, they will be able to help her”.
Andreea Dumitrache, from civil rights group The3million, said: “No one should face this level of harassment or denial of healthcare in the country they call home, least of all elderly citizens who have built their lives here. Soisic’s experience of repeated questioning, despite her obvious lawful residence, is a Kafkaesque nightmare, trapped in a bureaucratic maze that refuses to acknowledge basic rights.
“This is a shameful example of how the hostile environment continues to harm those who should be protected. We urge the government and institutions like the NHS to implement proper training and accountability, so that EU citizens are no longer treated as second-class.”