The work of HBF’s General Practitioner (GP) “Miranda is a 30 year old woman who was trafficked to the UK and held in forced prostitution in a brothel for 6 years. She had escaped from the brothel just a few months earlier. “By the time she came to HBF she had attended multiple healthcare facilities including a sexual health clinic, several Accident and Emergency (A&E) hospital departments and two hospital Outpatient departments. She had also registered with two different GPs while she stayed for short periods of time in temporary accommodation. Most of these GP consultations had been conducted without appropriate interpreters, and because she was not fluent in English, she had only a limited understanding of which investigations had been carried out or whether any diagnoses had been made. “GPs working for the National Health Service should receive information from any other health providers who treat their patients. However, patients like Miranda, who are frequently moved to temporary accommodation in different areas, are often failed by this system, and so they lack centrally held medical records. “Having obtained Miranda’s informed consent, I contacted all of the healthcare providers she had consulted to find out more about the investigations that were carried out and any treatment she had received. This is a time consuming process, but one which is often essential to ensure that clients can obtain a co-ordinated and comprehensive response to their healthcare needs. “In Miranda’s case this was significant because she had been diagnosed with hepatitis B, had pending investigations for tuberculosis and had recently been treated for pelvic inflammatory disease. She required abdominal and pelvic scans and had been referred to a hospital Liver Unit. “The GP she was registered with at this point did not have any of this information. Although she had seen Miranda at several appointments, to trauma, may not have the confidence to register with a GP or to ask questions about their medical care. They often lack any knowledge of healthcare services which are available to them, and this, together with their isolation and fear, perpetuates their difficulties in obtaining access to services. she had no idea of her trafficking background because Miranda finds it difficult to talk about what has happened to her. “I was able to provide Miranda with the information she needed about her healthcare and communicate directly with her own GP. Once a GP knows about a patient’s trafficking background, they are more able to help, and Miranda has now got the assistance she needs. She has cohesive medical care, as well as a much better understanding of her own medical issues. “At a later point, Miranda’s HBF therapist became concerned that there had been a deterioration in her mental health. I was able to discuss this with Miranda’s own GP and this resulted in Miranda being prescribed antidepressants which helped her to cope and to engage more effectively in the therapeutic process.” Dr. Jane Hunt, HBF In-house General Practitioner (GP) referral to other clinical/health organizations which is built from these pro-actively developed relationships, is a cornerstone of practice at HBF. A recent study of trafficked people’s access, and rights of access, to healthcare in the UK, has reported that trafficked people find it extremely difficult to access services without support from local advocates or caseworkers.98 Health providers’ insistence on proof of address and, in some cases immigration status, was found to be a particular barrier to access. The study also found that in order to overcome barriers to healthcare, post-trafficking support providers had proactively trained and developed relationships with local primary healthcare and sexual health clinics 99. CrossHealth and Human Rights: An International Journal, 95