Soon after arriving in the UK, Sarah became suicidal. She was referred to a specialist psychiatric hospital, but because of her immigration status as an " overstayer " she was told she could not be helped and was discharged without medication or any psychological treatment. She had no permanent housing and was also struggling to come to terms with her sexuality.When she was finally referred to DOTW, she said it was the first time she had been treated like a human being. The charity helped her register with a GP, who she still sees today. But by that point, Sarah said, her mental health had been permanently damaged.Miller said DOTW is increasingly seeing patients receiving “really sizeable bills” – sometimes amounting to 150% of the actual cost to the NHS of their treatment.In real terms, she said, this means women are looking at bills in the region of £6,000 for an uncomplicated delivery. Even in cases where the baby has died during the birth or shortly afterwards, DOTW has encountered women who have been invoiced for thousands of pounds.“We also often see hospitals threatening to report migrants to the Home Office if they don’t pay their bills in two months,” Miller said, adding that it is especially difficult to settle a bill that big in such a short time if – as is the case for most undocumented migrants and failed asylum seekers – you do not have a legal right to work in the UK.Because of the repercussions, Miller said, the current protocol is a clear violation of the Department of Health’s own rules. “NHS guidance says that patients should not be denied, deterred or delayed in accessing antenatal care,” she said. “The way that hospitals are writing to pregnant women and issuing them invoices in advance and threatening to tell the Home Office is definitely deterring them from accessing services. And it’s prioritising the recovery of costs over antenatal care and patients’ ability to pay.”Miller said introducing passport checks could start to affect other groups of people, too. “There’s a fairly substantial cost involved in having proof of ID, and they’re [also] asking for proof of address,” she explained. “British people in lower socio-economic circumstances are less likely to have these documents, so it's going to put in place barriers to these people accessing healthcare.”In addition to endangering homeless people, the new policy could also disproportionately affect Black and minority ethnic (BME) women – both documented migrants and Brits – and result in racial profiling, Miller said. “We’re concerned that because it's a lot of work for hospitals, they’re going to target people who don’t look or don’t sound British” she told Refinery29.“It’s British people as well who will be impacted by this, and it’s always more vulnerable people who will be affected the most.”