Vaccines and Undocumented migrants

The GPC has raised the issue of vaccines and undocumented migrants. Bureau of Investigative Journalism conducted some research on access to Covid vaccines for those who are not registered with a GP practice – namely undocumented migrants. Their findings are fairly damning, with many practices refusing to register patients with unclear immigration status/no documents/no fixed address. This is being picked up by various sections of the media. It seems that despite the requirement on GP surgeries to register all patients (if the lists are open to new patients), less than a quarter of all surgeries (24%) in their investigations registered an undocumented patient.

Practices are encouraged to use the Safe Surgeries toolkit developed by Doctors of the World (DOTW). The toolkit is an accessible presentation of existing guidance and supports clinical and non-clinical NHS staff to promote inclusive care through GP registration. Notably, it aims to address specific barriers to primary care faced by vulnerable, un/under-documented migrants by ensuring that GP practices are aware of all relevant guidance and rules. This includes, for example, that patients should not be turned away if they lack a proof of ID, address, or immigration status.

We continue to work with DOTW to encourage GPs and practices to consider and adopt the recommendations set out in the toolkit, particularly as it is now more important than ever that patients are registered with a GP. GP registration will likely mitigate the effects of the pandemic on health inequalities by improving equitable access to care and ensuring that marginalised and excluded communities are not missed in the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

DOTW also offer FREE training to clinical and non-clinical NHS staff that aims to improve awareness of migrant entitlements to NHS care and enables staff to better advocate for their patients.