No-deal Brexit risk warning from NHS Tayside

NHS Tayside is preparing for possible service disruption when the transition period ends on 31 December, having warned that a no-deal Brexit could threaten safe and effective patient care.

The Scottish health board, which serves more than 400,000 patients across Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross, is preparing for possible shortages of medicine, equipment and staff - warning that a no deal departure could ‘lead to an inability to deliver safe and effective care’.

Both the UK and Scottish governments have prepared contingency plans in case no agreement is reached, but continuity of healthcare remains a key concern and the NHS across Scotland has reactivated plans drawn up when a Brexit crisis loomed last year.

In a 34-page Brexit readiness plan released to BBC Scotland in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, NHS Tayside set out potential problems and measures to offset them. Concerns include possible ‘interruption to availability of medicines, vaccines, personal protective equipment and essential consumable items’.

This is in addition to worries that Brexit will reduce the number of EU nationals available to work as doctors, dentists, nurses and in social care. While those already living and working here can apply for settled status until next summer, NHS Tayside believes ‘there remains a risk that EU staff will leave the UK’.

Event Diary

This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

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