Death of British overseas territories citizen prompts calls for reform of UK rules | Jamaica

Friends and family of a British Overseas (BOT) citizen, who died after the UK refused him medical assistance, have called for reform of “flawed” policies governing healthcare in the territories.

Robert Baker, 63, a dual citizen of Jamaica and Montserrat, died on Friday after traveling to Jamaica to receive treatment for fainting spells which was not available in the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat.

He was receiving treatment at a hospital in Montego Bay, but his family said despite the best efforts of doctors and nurses, he endured immense hardship during his stay at the hospital, which was being renovated.

After undergoing surgery to remove a stomach tumor, Baker was discharged but had to return to the hospital, where he said he was placed in chairs for nearly two weeks because no beds were available.

“At one point I was on four chairs put together and at other times I was in a wheelchair. Sometimes my feet were dangling and they were swelling,” Baker told the Guardian before his death.

In the week following his death, his family also said they had exhausted all their resources and were no longer able to pay for costly medication for Baker, who had to be fed intravenously.

His distraught companion, Cynthia Brooks, pleaded Monday for better treatment of Montserratians.

“One of my greatest wishes… is that other Montserratians are not denied [help] of the British government. They should help our people because we are ruled by their government.

“If only they [had] I listened to Robert Baker’s cry…asking for help to go to England for better health care, he would be with us today. So… if anyone… should seek help from the UK government due to illness, please… don’t let anyone die again like Robert Baker died, simply because of negligence,” she said.

MP Donaldson Romeo, a former premier of Montserrat, had begun fundraising, writing letters to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and traveling to Jamaica and the United Kingdom to try to get help for Baker. He said he had been told that the UK generally did not help dual nationals in their country of second nationality unless there were human rights or humanitarian violations.

The FCDO previously said the UK does not provide consular support to dual nationals while they are in their second country, and that the Department of Health and Social Care has an agreement with BOTs for five to 10 BOT citizens per year – depending on the territory – to be treated by the NHS. He said the government BOT had to make the referral and cover travel, accommodation and subsistence costs.

Romeo, who visited the UK on Sunday to press British MPs to address the challenges facing BOT citizens in Montserrat, said Baker’s death was a tragic indictment of “flawed, fragmented and misaligned policies” towards citizens of the British Overseas Territories.

In his final letter to the FCDO on Wednesday, before Mr Baker’s death, he said the case clearly met the human rights threshold, asking: “Is it humane for a 60-year-old post-surgical patient to survive on intravenous drips for over eight weeks, sleep in chairs for two weeks and later in a wheelchair for four days? Would such treatment be tolerated under the British jurisdiction, even in a prison or asylum detention center? “

His letter also describes a system that allowed up to 10 foreign citizens from each BOT to receive NHS treatment each year as “inadequate to the scale of need” and “deeply flawed”, adding that it created “disparities which have led to predictable harm and, in some cases, loss of life”.

Romeo said Baker would not have been able to benefit from the program because he was unable to meet the criteria for covering travel, accommodation and living expenses – which neither the UK nor Montserrat provided.

Montserrat has been devastated by a series of natural disasters, including the 1995 eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano, which destroyed its capital, Plymouth, and forced two-thirds of its population to flee. Thirty years later, the island’s health facilities have not been fully restored, authorities say.

Earlier this month, the Guardian reported the case of Cherry Brown, 69, a BOT citizen from Montserrat who slept rough in a park in Swanley, Kent. Brown had been funded by the Montserrat government to travel to the UK and receive treatment on the NHS, which is not available on the island – but received letters from the NHS demanding payment for her care.

“The recent death of Robert Baker highlights Montserrat’s continuing struggle. Nearly 30 years after the volcano destroyed our key infrastructure, we still lack a proper hospital, specialized care and effective emergency services, forcing many people to seek treatment abroad, often with tragic consequences,” Romeo said.

He added: “While the wealthier British territories [like Gibraltar] and crown dependencies benefit from strong local healthcare and access to the UK NHS, Montserratians continue to face deep inequalities.”

“I urge British MPs to once again stand with Montserrat, as they did in 1997, by granting us equal access to education. [the] UK NHS. As British citizens, the people of Montserrat deserve the same dignity, compassion and healthcare. I am confident that the people of the United Kingdom would understand and care if they knew the full extent of our struggle,” he said.

The Guardian has contacted the Jamaican government for comment.