The success of such a campaign will depend on mobilising everybody, from the management of NHS Trusts to patient engagement groups, from the staff working on the front line to the Royal Colleges that represent them, to engage with and advance opposition to these policies. We must force these institutions to break their silence. Those that work in the sector must be supported to challenge these policies in the ways that are possible for them in their workplace.

The hostile environment policy takes aim at one of the few institutions representing progressive political ideals, and is a direct attack on the equality and class solidarity the NHS embodies. This is why this fight is so pivotal in the struggle against institutional racism and the far right in Britain today – and the work of resisting these policies must include everybody.

Migrants Organise, Medact, and Docs Not Cops have been supporting groups to put these principles into action, and there are now growing campaigns in Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Glasgow, Swansea, and in four London Trusts. In Barts Health Trust in east London, healthcare workers have been collaborating with campaigners from Keep Our NHS Public and North East London Save Our NHS who have been pushing the Trust to stop charging patients. This has led to a picket at the Trusts AGM, a march from East London Mosque to deliver the community’s demands to the Trust Executive, and an inspiring meeting of healthcare workers sharing their experiences of being forced to charge patients under these regulations.

In Liverpool, hundreds of people have signed an open statement demanding their Trust stand up for the rights of patients and call on the Government to stop charging for NHS care. In Birmingham campaigns are building a powerful coalition of healthcare workers, community campaigners, faith groups, and people affected by charging, a campaign that emerged from the tragic death of community member Nasar Ullah Khan. Campaigners working in Homerton Trust in east London have been using the Local Council’s Health Scrutiny Board to pressure the Trust to stop using threatening pre-attendance forms that demand patients provide ID and consent to their data being given to the Home Office.

These campaigns are growing rapidly, now supported by the Patients Not Passports toolkit that contains the basic principles for how to advocate for patients, and how to create a vibrant, dynamic movement against the Hostile Environment in the NHS. The toolkit is accompanied by Medact’s briefing on charging – Patients Not Passports: Challenging healthcare charging in the NHS. It explains where NHS charging came from, deconstructs the racialised myths the Government have used to justify it, and provides a comprehensive evidence base to support opposition to the policy.

The campaign is open to all, and all will be needed in order to succeed. Here are some ways you can get involved.

1) Organise - people across the country are organising locally to call on Trusts to resist the charges. We can support you step by step to start a campaign where you are. For more information email [email protected] or [email protected]. There might already be a campaign where you are, see below!

2) Share the Toolkit and the Briefing - These tools are made for everyone, help us get them out there by sharing them with your friends, colleagues, and on social media using #PatientsNotPassports

3) Stay in touch

● Email Docs Not Cops to join their mailing list

● Sign up to Medact’s Patients Not Passports mailing list to get updates about the campaigns happening around the country.

● Contact Migrants Organise - email Akram on [email protected]

● Follow @MigrantsOrg @Medact & @DocsNotCops on Twitter to stay in touch.