This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A judge has rejected a challenge by a member of the Windrush generation to the government requirement for the NHS to charge overseas patients for treatment.

A 58-year-old man identified as “MP” who required urgent treatment for blood cancer had sought a judicial review of the relevant regulations, which formed a plank of the hostile environment policy.

Hundreds of patients have been denied treatment for serious health problems including cancer, arrhythmia and cardiac chest pains after ministers forced the NHS to impose upfront charges on migrants deemed ineligible for free healthcare.

MP, who came to the UK from St Lucia when he was 14, claimed the 2017 regulations were made without public consultation and so should be quashed.

But, sitting at the high court in London, Mr Justice Lewis ruled there was no requirement for the health and social care secretary to consult.

In a judgment handed down on Monday, he said: “The defendant was not required to consult publicly before amending the relevant regulations and imposing a requirement that advance payment for treatment be made or requiring that records be kept of chargeable individuals … The claim for judicial review of the 2017 regulations is therefore dismissed.”

MP, who has been charged thousands of pounds for treatment, also claimed that the secretary of state had drawn up the National Health Service (charges to overseas visitors) amendment regulations 2017 without discharging duties to avoid and reduce inequalities. However, these arguments were also rejected by Lewis, who noted that two equality analyses had been provided in 2016 and 2017.

The claimant had been charged because he was refused leave to remain in the UK in 2015, at around the same time that his life-threatening illness was diagnosed.

However, the judge said he was told in written submissions in October that MP was expected to be granted indefinite leave to remain by the end of November. “The consequence of that would be, it seems, that the claimant would not in future be liable to be charged for NHS-funded services in any event,” Lewis said.

Earlier this year the case of Albert Thompson, a Windrush victim, made headlines after he was denied cancer care. He was eventually given a date to start radiotherapy after a public outcry.

As a result of the Windrush scandal, which led to the resignation of Amber Rudd as home secretary, her successor, Sajid Javid, disowned the term hostile environment, renaming it “the compliant environment”.