No deal concerns prompt NHS hotel bookings

Reports have claimed that hotel rooms are being booked for NHS staff in case they have difficulty getting to work in the event of traffic jams after a no-deal Brexit.

Among the trusts making preparations, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, whose two main sites are both close to ports at Folkestone and Dover, said staff rotas after 31 October were being reviewed to ensure enough key workers were on duty.

Additionally, extra ambulance staff and vehicles from across the country are also set to help the South East Coast Ambulance Trust following warnings of significant disruption in a no-deal scenario.

A statement from East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said: "Like the rest of the NHS, East Kent Hospitals is putting preparations in place to ensure essential services for patients would continue to be available if local traffic routes were disrupted, in the same way it prepares for other potential disruptions, from heavy snowfall to flooding. We have booked a small number of hotel rooms close to our emergency hospitals as a precautionary measure, for an initial two-week period."

Another trust making no deal plans is Kent County Council, which has published an update to its Brexit Preparedness document in which it says the worst disruption following the UK's exit from the EU could last three months. This includes concerns that extra customs checks should take place outside Kent to ‘minimise disruption on the Kent road network and avoid the risk of freight in transit arriving at Kent ports without suitable customs paperwork’.