Please write to your MP to support Elderly parents abroad

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to you as president of the British Association of Physicians of India Origin about a matter very close to my heart. This is to do with the huge difficulties our members in the UK have when they seek to care for their elderly parents by bringing them to the UK to live with them.

We want to make it less stressful for our hard-working members to care for their parents and reduce the adverse impact on the lives and mental wellbeing of many of our members in the UK, forced to make multiple journeys, at a time when our NHS needs their dedication and experience more than ever. The situation has left many doctors feeling that their familial rights and bonds are being disregarded and they feel extremely stressed. Many have considered leaving the country.

BAPIO along with BMA and APPNE (Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe) are taking concerted action to bring to the attention of the Government the misery and stress caused by the Adult Dependent Visa Rules (2012) and push for these to be amended.
We aim to help the Government realise that making it easier for our parents to be reunited with us is the right thing to do, especially given the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, himself endorses elderly parents being able to receive their children (and grandchildren’s) love and care, during, and after, the pandemic. We will also deal with the Government’s spurious arguments about over-burdening the NHS, or other services, with the needs of such elderly migrants

As part of this we would like each individual member to write to their Member of Parliament to explain and highlight the issue and if possible, share their own personal experiences. For maximal impact we must do this all together so that in a short period of time the MPs get a lot of letters and this will increase the chance of the issue being discussed.

We have attached a template of a letter; you may use this directly or better still amend it or add to it with your personal experiences. To make it easier, you can find the contact details of your local MP by putting in your postcode at this link – https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP . Please try and do this as soon as possible, ideally before the 10th of January 2021,

For any further information please contact us on admin@bapio.co.uk

Best wishes,

Ramesh Mehta

Click to download the Template letter to MP

Pic Credit-Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay