The Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, has written a letter to ‘colleagues’ about the Government’s preparation for a March 2019 ‘No Deal’ scenario. Here is some of what he had to say.
“The Government has made significant progress in negotiations with the EU and remains confident we will leave with a good deals for both sides, that supports existing and future healthcare collaboration. However, as a responsible government, we continue to prepare proportionately for all scenarios, including the unlikely outcome that we will leave the EU without any deal in March 2019.”
Matt Hancock – Secretary of State for Health & Social Care
Continuity of Supply
“Today the Government has set out a new scheme to ensure a sufficient and seamless supply of medicines in the UK in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. In the unlikely event we leave the EU without a deal in March 2019, based on the current cross-Government planning scenario, we will ensure the UK has an additional six weeks supply of medicines in case imports from the EU through certain routes are affected. This is the current planning assumption but will of course be subject to revision in light of future developments.
Under the medicines scheme, pharmaceutical companies should ensure, therefore, they have an additional six weeks supply of medicines in the UK on top of their own normal stock levels. The scheme also includes separate arrangements for the air freight of medicines with short shelf lives, such as medical radioisotopes. The Government is working closely with companies who provide medicines in the UK to ensure patients continue to get the medicines they need. I am today also writing to pharmaceutical companies with more details.”
“The Government is also putting in place measures to manage the other potential implications for the health and care sector, including, for example, future immigration rules; continuity of research funding and pan-European clinical and research collaborations; and future reciprocal healthcare arrangements.”
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Although the ‘no deal’ preparatory notes have been seen, by some, as scaremongering it is only prudent that the government should prepare the UK for such an eventuality. What, however, is the greatest unknown is how overseas EU workers in the NHS will react if we were to leave the EU with no deal.
Would they stay because they have a job and/or a career with our National Health Service – or will they feel unwanted in a country that has just left the European Union?
It is maybe the staffing levels rather than the availability of medicines that proves the most problematical.