Friends and family of a British overseas territory (BOT) citizen who died after the UK refused him medical assistance have called for reform of \u201cflawed\u201d policies governing healthcare for the territories.<\/p>\n
Robert Baker, a 63-year-old dual citizen of Jamaica and Montserrat<\/a>, died on Friday, after travelling to Jamaica to receive treatment for blackouts that was unavailable in the British overseas territory of Montserrat.<\/p>\n He was receiving care at a hospital in Montego Bay, but his family said that despite the best efforts of the doctors and nurses, he endured immense challenges while in the hospital, which was under renovation.<\/p>\n After undergoing surgery to remove a tumour from his stomach, Baker was discharged but had to return to the hospital, where he said he was put on chairs for nearly two weeks because no beds were available.<\/p>\n \u201cAt one time, I was, like, on four chairs put together and other time I was in a wheelchair. Sometimes, my foot was hanging down so they were swelling,\u201d Baker told the Guardian before his death.<\/p>\n In the week of his death, his family also said they had exhausted all their resources and were no longer able to pay for expensive medication for Baker, who had to be fed intravenously.<\/p>\n Robert Baker\u2019s family said he had to sleep on chairs for nearly two weeks owing to a lack of available beds. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n His distraught partner, Cynthia Brooks, pleaded on Monday for better treatment of Montserratians.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my greatest wishes \u2026 is that other Montserratians don\u2019t get denied [help] from the British government. They should help our people because we are ruled under their government.<\/p>\n \u201cIf only they [had] listened to the cry of Robert Baker \u2026 asking for help to go to England for better healthcare, he would be with us today. So \u2026 if anyone \u2026 should ask the British government for help due to sickness, please \u2026 don\u2019t let any more die the way Robert Baker died, just because of neglect,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Donaldson Romeo MP, a former premier of Montserrat, had started raising money, written letters to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and visited Jamaica<\/a> and the UK in an attempt to get assistance for Baker. He said he was told that the UK did not ordinarily assist dual nationals in their country of second nationality, unless there were human rights or humanitarian violation matters.<\/p>\n The FCDO had previously said that the UK did not provide consular support to dual nationals when they were in their second country, and that the Department of Health<\/a> and Social Care had an agreement with BOTs for five to 10 BOT citizens a year \u2013 depending on the territory \u2013 to be treated by the NHS. It said the BOT government had to make the referral and cover the costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence.<\/p>\n Romeo, who flew to the UK on Sunday to lobby British MPs to address the challenges facing BOT citizens in Montserrat, said Baker\u2019s death was a tragic indictment of \u201cflawed, fragmented and poorly aligned policies\u201d towards citizens of British overseas territories.<\/p>\n In his last letter to the FCDO on Wednesday, before Mr Baker\u2019s death, he said the case clearly met the human rights exception threshold, asking: \u201cIs it humane for a 60-year-old post-surgical patient to survive on intravenous drips for over eight weeks, sleeping across chairs for two weeks and later in a wheelchair for four days? Would such treatment be tolerated under British jurisdiction, even in a prison or detention centre for asylum seekers?\u201d<\/p>\n His letter also described a scheme that allowed up to 10 overseas citizens from each BOT to receive NHS<\/a> treatment each year as \u201cinadequate in relation to the scale of need\u201d and \u201cdeeply flawed\u201d, adding that it created \u201cdisparities that have resulted in predictable harm and, in some cases, loss of life\u201d.<\/p>\n Romeo said that Baker would not have qualified for the scheme, as he was unable to meet the criteria of covering travel, accommodation and subsistence costs \u2013 which neither the UK nor Montserrat provided.<\/p>\n Montserrat has been devastated by a string of natural disasters, including the 1995 eruption of the Soufri\u00e8re Hills volcano<\/a>, which destroyed its capital, Plymouth, and forced two-thirds of its population to flee. Thirty years later<\/a>, health facilities on the island have not been fully restored, according to officials.<\/p>\n