‘The injustice is stark’ – NHS refuses care to British Overseas Territory citizen, leaving her stranded

Cherry Brown, a 69-year-old citizen of the British overseas territory (BOT) Montserrat, was refused free NHS care and left sleeping rough after traveling to the UK for healthcare. Now, Montserrat MP Donaldson Romeo has accused the UK of stark injustice for its failures towards Brown.

Montserrat funded Brown to travel to the UK in order to receive NHS healthcare. She needs two knee replacements, and also suffers from hypertension, among other issues. The island’s only hospital has just 30 beds – a consequence of the devastation wrought by a 1995 volcanic eruption.

Cherry Brown: ‘I just can’t understand it’

As a BOT, the Caribbean nation is entitled to send a quota of 10 patients a year to the UK for treatment. For its part, Montserrat is required to fund travel and accommodation. However, previous government research has shown that the quota is woefully inadequate:

The quota system has little impact on meeting actual need… the estimated actual need for overseas referrals across all OTs runs into many hundreds.

When Cherry Brown arrived in the UK, she was told that she wasn’t on the quota program. As such, she didn’t have the right to free treatment. Instead, she was left sleeping outside in a park in Swanley, Kent. She explained:

I became ill, can’t manage work any more … then, I’m sleeping in a park. I am homeless. I just can’t understand it. Travelling on a passport that’s British.

Swanley town council chief executive Ryan Hayman stated that he had arranged temporary accommodation for Brown. Kent council is also providing a small stipend for her to live on. However, Hayman stated that:

Cherry was stuck in limbo, hence Swanley and myself were trying to support her until Kent county council could house her. Then, to add insult to injury, Cherry started to receive the bills [from the NHS].

Unless they’re exempt from payment, the NHS usually charges overseas visitors 150% of the cost of their treatment. The Home Office has offered to forgive Brown’s debts on the proviso that she returns to Montserrat – leaving her completely without access to adequate care. Brown said:

I didn’t come here to live … I just need help to get my medical [care] to get me back on track and go home, because we do not have that kind of health service there. If you get a cold, you’re OK. Anything higher than a seasonal flu, you’re in problems.

‘Left in peril’

Montserrat’s former premier, Donaldson Romeo, traveled to the UK in order to plead Brown’s case. In a letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), he wrote:

The injustice is stark … British overseas territory citizens such as Ms Brown and Mr Baker are left in peril abroad, on UK and Commonwealth soil without … humanitarian assistance.

Romeo also stated that Cherry Brown’s situation echoes the Windrush scandal, when UK citizens of previously colonized territories were victimised under the Tory ‘Hostile Environment’ policy. He went on to add that:

It’s time for us as Montserratians to stand up and demand that we’re treated as equal human beings, as citizens … and insist that the British government provides for us to the best of their ability … that they at least treat us with the respect given under human rights law.

He also argued that the quota system for Montserrat-UK healthcare fails to recognise the unique challenges facing the island, which is still reeling from repeated natural disasters.

The 1995 eruption destroyed most of the capital, Plymouth, and forced much of the population to flee – mostly to the UK. Many of the remaining population are either young or very old. Coupled with the island’s remote location, efforts to rebuild have made slow progress. The sole hospital serving Montserrat currently operates out of a former primary school.

Featured image via the Canary