would be more rather than less likely to be referred for medical examination. Certainly, the spouse or child of someone settled in the UK is not inherently more likely to be in good health than any other passenger coming from the same country.
Hong Kong refer to paragraph 82 of the Rules, which says that the spouses and children under 18 of people settled in the UK should not be refused leave to enter on medical grounds. They perhaps infer from this that there is less justification for referring such people for medical examination. However, the possibility of refusing people admission is not the only justification for such examination, and indeed refusal is the least likely outcome. Paragraph 82 goes on to make clear that the spouse or child of someone settled in the UK may, following an examination, be required to report to a Medical Officer of Environmental Health with a view to further examination and any necessary treatment. Even if no such requirement is placed on the passenger, the Port Medical Inspector (PMI) may, if he has not been able to complete a satisfactory examination, ask the local Medical Officer for Environmental Health to make arrangements for further examination of the passenger once they have been admitted to the UK. (This in fact happened in the case of Mrs Denne and Julius Ngitngit, to which the telegram refers.) The Department of Health regard such follow-up, and in general putting people arriving in the UK in touch with health services here, as an important function of port health checks, and again this applies to the dependants of people settled here as much as to other passengers coming for long-term purposes.
I now turn to the question of medical certificates obtained abroad. The Immigration Officer may, of course, be presented with any manner of medical certificates and it is not his responsibility to draw conclusions from them. The Immigration Rules explicitly say that, if a passenger produces a medical certificate, they should be advised to hand it to the Medical Inspector (paragraph 80 of HC251). Generally speaking, the only medical certificate accepted as conclusive by a PMI is the form 'XY' issued by a Medical Referee or Medical Officer acting at the behest of an overseas post. (See DSP Vol. 50 para 17.4.1 and 17.4.3.) This is the 'medical certificate' referred to in para. 17.7.2 of DSP Vol. 50, to which Hong Kong refer. As far as I know, the Hong Kong Immigration Department does not have the facility which posts have formally to refer applicants for UK entry clearances for medical examination, leading to issue of form XY. But I should stress that a passenger producing a form XY on arrival in the UK will still be referred to the PMI by the IO. Because of the importance placed on follow-up, to which I have referred, it is necessary for passengers who are subject to health checks to be seen by PMIS appointed by the Department of Health on arrival. Thus, a fortiori, the production of a medical certificate other than form XY cannot obviate the need for passengers to be seen by the PMI.
I would be happy for Hong Kong to draw on the above as you or they think fit in responding to the Society, but I suggest that the key points are that the IO's discretion, under the Immigration Rules to refer arriving passengers for medical examination extends to the spouse or child of someone settled in
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