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15
Dec 2020
Brexit – NHS could see supply shortages over winter peak even with a deal
Experts have warned that disruption to medical supplies at the UK border in the wake of Brexit will be ‘unavoidable’.
The NHS are facing a growing concern that whatever happens in relation to Brexit, there will be problems getting enough medical equipment and drugs into the UK and to the hospitals and patients who need them.
75 per cent of the medicines used by the NHS and 50 per cent of all medical equipment comes to the UK from the EU and leaving the union will lead to additional paperwork and checks at parts and borders on 31st December whether or not a deal is agreed.
This shift in Britain’s trading relationship with the EU and the impact on its supply chain will come during a time when traditionally the NHS experiences its peak winter demand.
This will also come at a time when hospitals are already likely to be filled with thousands of Covid patients as a result of the second wave which, although infections have fallen due to lockdown, many seriously ill patients will still be recovering in hospital. By January, the risk of an uptick in infection after the Christmas relaxation of rules is likely to make the situation worse.
Mark Dayan of the Nuffield Health think tank, said “The departure from the single market is so unlike something a developed country has done before that it’s really difficult to tell exactly the magnitude of what we might be looking at.
“We don’t know what scale disruption will be on. The government have obviously been putting in place a lot of plans and so have the big importers and suppliers to try to deal with disruption. I think the big question which honestly nobody knows the answer to is are we going to get less disruption than they expect, or more?”
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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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