PATIENTS on the English side of the Wye registered with Welsh-based doctors should have their choice of hospital returned immediately, say campaigners.

Many people in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire have no practical choice but to register with GPs in Wales – which means they have to follow rules from the government in Cardiff that doctors in the Principality should refer their patients to hospitals in Wales.

But Gloucestershire-based campaigners Action4OurCare say choice should be restored immediately as the protocol on cross-border treatment contravenes the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The call came as the Welsh Government said English residents will not be affected by the new rules which mean the organs of patients who die in Welsh hospitals will automatically be available for transplant unless they opt out.

The rules affect people such as the Sedbury woman who wrote to the Review to say she had wanted treatment in Bristol but was eventually told she would have to go to Swansea.

The issue of cross-border was also raised in a debate in the House of Commons last week led by Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman.

Action4OurCare founder Pam Plummer said: Action4OurCare believe that there is clear justification to return choice to English residents immediately given that cross-border protocol negotiated by NHS England contravenes the Health and Social Care Act 2012 by not ensuring that the legal rights to patients set out in the Act are reflected in the commissioning arrangements.

"There is a legal duty of the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to promote the NHS England constitution and its awareness among patients.

"There was no meaningful consultation in England before the Aneurin Bevan Health Board's (ABHB) interpretation of the cross border protocol was put in place. Nor did NHS England, via the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust and the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group which replaced it, ensure public involvement or consultation, or ensure that the principles agreed at Ministerial level were implemented.

"We believe that these reasons are sufficient to make an interim amendment to the cross-border protocol immediately, which requires the ABHB to commission services for English residents in line with the NHS constitution and enables the Glos CCG to carry out its legal duties under the Act. This would mean at least, that the ABHB would revert to the arrangements in place prior to September 1 2012. This would end the current injustice and patients would no longer have to suffer anxiety and concern about their healthcare arrangements and, in many cases, real personal hardship."

Action4OurCare is holding a public meeting with Forest MP Mark Harper at the St Briavels Pavilion at 10am on Saturday, July 20.

Mr Norman told the Commons: "There are more than 20,000 NHS patients who are resident in England, yet registered with a Welsh general practitioner. Of these, some 3,500 are resident in my county of Herefordshire. Many of these people...have no choice but to register with a Welsh GP because no English practice covers their location.

"These people live in England, but they are being denied access to hospital services in England. That is grossly unfair."

On the question of transplants, a Welsh Government spokesman told the Review: "The changes will have no impact on those living across the border regardless of whether they are registered with a Welsh GP.

"Residents affected have to be registered living at a Welsh address for at least 12 months and even those people have a choice of whether they wish to donate their organs."

For more information about the public meeting email [email protected]">[email protected], write to PO Box 94, Lydney or telephone 01594 530008 or 01291 627600.