Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Evan Harris (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Wednesday, 29 June 2005 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

HIV/AIDS Treatment

Question: The Prime Minister is of course right, but does he realise that the UK is poaching thousands of doctors and nurses from sub-Saharan Africa without any form of restitution, such as specific funding or sending our own manpower back? Indeed, the Government are telling British doctors not to treat the very small number of African patients with HIV who have no status in this country and are forcing them to go back to countries in which they have very little chance of treatment, and thus, most likely, to their death. How can the Prime Minister claim moral leadership on the matter with G8 leaders when our current policy and practice appears to be to steal the doctors and reject the patients? Will he change his policy—

Answer: There is no policy to steal doctors and nurses from developing countries. There is a code of practice to which we adhere that ensures that we do not do such a thing. If many of the people who come to this country were not coming here, I am afraid that they would not be staying in their own countries—that is the problem—because they would simply be going elsewhere. On the hon. Gentleman's point about turning away some people with HIV/AIDS from the national health service here, he will know that there has been a lot of concern about people coming here to be treated, so we have to be careful about that as well. It would be grossly unfair to imply, as the hon. Gentleman did, that this country has not been taking a lead on HIV/AIDS. We have made huge investment in the global health fund. Nearly 1 million people now receive AIDS treatment, in part as a result of the work done by this country, and we are leading the international commitment to get action on both drugs and health clinics and the staffing that the poorest countries need. However, that will not be helped, frankly, by refusing to take anyone from the continent of Africa in circumstances in which those people have already made the decision to leave their own countries.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 435 c1296-7
Session: 2005-06
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Related items: HIV/AIDS Treatment
Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Proceeding contributions
House of Commons
Subjects: Developing countries Health services Health professions HIV/AIDS Medical treatments Recruitment Migrant workers Sub-Saharan Africa Access
Link: View this Prime Minister's question on www.publications.parliament.uk