Passport checks for patients mooted in asylum clampdown

Trust staff could be forced to check patients' passports to establish if they are entitled to free hospital treatment under a government clampdown.

Launching consultation on guidance to close loopholes whereby non-UK residents, including failed asylum seekers, can claim free NHS care, health minister John Hutton acknowledged that policing the policy could mean trusts ask patients for passports as proof of residence.He said: 'There has been debate about whether It is appropriate to see passports. If there is doubt, I think they should look at passports.'

Mr Hutton said he believed national identify cards would provide a better solution: 'From my point of view, it would be easier to establish eligibility if there was a card.'

The proposals, which only cover hospital care, suggest that anyone seeking emergency treatment within an accident and emergency department should still be entitled to free care. Compulsory psychiatric care is also excluded from restrictions.

Beyond that, free treatment is likely to be restricted to legitimate asylum seekers; foreign citizens working and resident in the UK and their resident relatives, foreign students studying for more than six months in the UK, and British ex-pats - that is those who take home leave or are entitled to their passage home at the end of their employment.

But pensioners can now spend up to six months abroad - compared to three under existing guidance, without giving up their entitlement to free NHS care.

The guidance does not cover non-acute care, so GP appointments remain free at the point of delivery.

Mr Hutton said he recognised that tackling the issue would be difficult and said he did not want to increase bureaucracy. But he said: 'My instinct is that there is a significant problem felt by many trusts, particularly in larger trusts.

'I want to make it easier for the NHS to resolve these generally difficult issues about when people are entitled to free NHS care.

But Unison national secretary Karen Jennings said: 'Our advice to our members is that they are there to care, not to police.'