News Release

Doctors conclude UK has committed 'atrocious barbarism' in removing dying Ghanaian woman

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Lancet_DELETED

An Editorial published early Online on thelancet.com and in this week's Lancet print issue says the UK government has committed an 'atrocious barbarism' in removing a dying Ghanaian woman from the country, thereby preventing her receiving vital life-prolonging dialysis treatment. In Correspondence also published early Online, some 275 doctors call on the UK government to abandon its plans to abolish the rights of failed asylum seekers to primary health care. Both the Editorial and the Correspondence are published Online on Tuesday 15 January 2008.

The Editorial asks why doctors' leaders have said and done nothing regarding the case of Ama Sumani. The 39-year-old Ghanaian was removed from the UK last week because she was there illegally, despite requiring vital life-prolonging dialysis treatment.

The case has shocked many in the UK, and Sumani's solicitor has been inundated with calls from compassionate members of the British public offering Ama money and even their bone marrow for a transplant. Ghana's High Commissioner in London has appealed to Britain to reverse its decision.

The Editorial says: "What about doctors' leaders" Have they expressed their outrage? Have they called for compassionate treatment of Sumani? Unfortunately not. There has been a disappointing and deafening silence about the case from those who are supposed to represent doctors' voices in the UK. Sumani is not the only migrant who has fallen seriously ill in the UK, begun treatment, and then been removed or deported to a country where treatment is unaffordable or inaccessible. Individual doctors who work with these patient groups have been campaigning on their behalf."

It concludes: "To stop treating patients in the knowledge that they are being sent home to die is an unacceptable breach of the duties of any health professional. The UK has committed an atrocious barbarism. It is time for doctors' leaders to say so forcefully and uncompromisingly."

In the Correspondence, the doctors, whose spokesperson is Dr Frank Arnold, (an independent doctor working with the Medical Justice Network), say that refusing health care to failed asylum seekers would be both dangerous and unethical, and would impose serious health risks on both these undocumented migrants and the general public. They say: "It is not in keeping with the ethics of our profession to refuse to see any person who may be ill, particularly pregnant women with complications, sick children, or men crippled by torture. No-one would want such a doctor for their GP."

The doctors call on the government to "retreat from this foolish proposal," and pledge that, should regulations come into force abolishing the rights of failed asylum seekers to treatment, they will:

a) Continue to see asylum seekers and give them health advice whatever their immigration status

b) Document their diagnoses and required clinical care.

c) With suitable anonymisation and consent, copy this documentation to the responsible ministers, MPs, and the press

d) Inform the public of the human costs, to harness popular disgust at what is being ordered by the government in their name

e) Campaign to speedily reverse these ill-advised policies

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Notes to editors:

*See Online correspondence

**For information on the 275 doctors, see the full Correspondence

Dr Frank Arnold, an independent doctor working with the Medical Justice Network, T) +44 (0) 7740 422918 E) arnold_frank@hotmail.com

The Lancet Press Office T) +44 (0) 20 7424 4949 E) pressoffice@lancet.com


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