Cancer patient loses visa battle

Cancer patient loses visa battle

news.bbc.co.uk

Ama Sumani was treated at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff


Ama Sumani's story
A Ghanaian woman who came to the UK five years ago and became a student is being flown back to the African country, despite being terminally ill.
Ama Sumani was taken by immigration officers from a Cardiff hospital where she has been receiving dialysis for a year after cancer damaged her kidneys.

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This is just so sad! The woman is obviously very ill and yet they still deport her. Would it matter if they bent the rules to allow her to seek further treatment without having to 'remove' her from the country? She can re-apply for her visa once she is back in Ghana... so what's stopping them from making an exception and processing her application whilst she is still in the UK? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 10-1-2008 by AbsoluteLegend]

I was disgusted when I heard this story on the radio this morning.

Just what kind of heartless jobsworth beaurocrat would order a patient recieving hospital treatment at the time to be removed from hospital and deported?

Whilst I agree with some of the sentiments expressed here, let's not forget one thing - the NHS is in a state of crisis for many reasons, one of which is health tourism.

This case is poignant and is designed to tug at the heart strings, but ghana has a health service as well;

A spokesman for Ghana's high commission in London said the country had two fully-equipped hospitals in Accra and further north in Kumasi.

He did concede that access to treatment was costly but said that if Ms Sumani was a member of the Ghana national health insurance scheme she would still receive treatment.

source

There have been many instances of a postcode lottery in the UK where people who have paid into the system all their lives have been refused treatment as it has been too costly - herceptin was a classic example of this.

So who do we look after?
People who have spent their lives paying into the system, through the NI scheme?
or people who come here under false pretences to try and take advantage of a system that is primarily for UK citizens who have paid into it?

People here have ended up selling their HOMES in order to get treatment they are entitled to by law - and one of the reasons for this is health tourism.