Academy of the Medical Royal Colleges on the impact on healthcare after Brexit

The impact on healthcare after Brexit - a statement from the Academy of the Medical Royal Colleges.

The challenges faced by the healthcare sector in relation to the regulation and continued supply of life-saving medicines and medical devices after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union are of great concern to those who are responsible for patient care.

Read the statement at http://www.aomrc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TMBrexitspeech_060318-3.pdf

Home Secretary's open letter to EU citizens

Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has written directly to EU nationals offering reassurance about their rights to stay in the UK following the release of the joint report on 8 December.

The letter confirms that EU citizens living lawfully in the UK by 29 March 2019, will be able to stay and have broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now. It also highlights how EU staff's existing close family members living outside the UK retain the right to join them in the future.

Brexit - Sectoral analyses

The Exiting the European Union Committee has published 39 sectoral reports that contain analysis of the impact of Brexit on business and service sectors in the UK.

• Health and care sectoral analysis
• Life sciences sectoral analysis
• Other analyses

Brexit: the implications for health and social care

Briefing from the King's Fund

Although the EU has limited legal jurisdiction over how health and care services are organised and provided in member states, the UK’s vote to leave the EU will have major implications for health and social care in England.

First, because the government has been clear that Brexit will mean the UK leaving the European single market and the customs union – arrangements that currently play an important role in facilitating the delivery of health services, via access to workforce as well as goods and services. Second, because EU directives affect many areas of UK law that impact on the delivery of health and care services. Third, because the vote has ushered in a period of significant economic and political uncertainty at a time when the NHS and social care are already facing huge financial and operational pressures.

Medical Innovation and Brexit; Beyond Geographic Location

The past month saw Holland edge a head to head battle with Italy to host the European Medicines Agency. The move from London to Amsterdam exposes the depth of impact of Brexit. Although some Brits may struggle with being European, in the medical world we are tied together with an umbilicus – from research to regulation.

There is a clear loss of knowledge, insight and experience, with not all of the staff wanting to relocate to Amsterdam. But, the real impact of this relocation extends far beyond just changing the host city.

From the NIHR Innovation Observatory

Nuffield Trust considers the impact of Brexit on the NHS

This briefing from the Nuffield Trust looks at five key areas within healthcare that need urgent regulatory attention. It emphasises that national, institutional and political leaders of the NHS and life sciences in Britain, as well as their European counterparts, need to make healthcare a high priority during Brexit negotiations.

The five key areas that Nuffield have identified that require attention include:

• Approval of medicines and devices
• Regulation of service and healthcare
• General trading arrangements
• Participation in EU health & science programmes
• Reciprocal healthcare programmes

How will our future relationship with the EU shape the NHS?

This briefing from the Nuffield Trust explores five key areas where the deals the UK government reaches with the EU - or lack of them - will impact upon health and social care.

Maintaining reciprocal healthcare for patients after Brexit

Now that negotiations are underway between the UK and the European Union on the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, what will this mean for British people who need healthcare in another EU country, or EU citizens who need treatment while they’re in the UK?

This paper, produced by the Brexit Health Alliance, explains what is happening in the Brexit negotiations, and what the implications would be if the existing reciprocal arrangements were to be discontinued post Brexit.

Brexit and the workforce FAQs

NHS Employers has produced a set of frequently asked questions surrounding the implications of Brexit on EU staff in the NHS. The responses have been drafted in collaboration with legal healthcare specialists, Captsticks LLP.

Member briefing: Brexit

This briefing from National Voices explains the priority areas of concern for the health and care sector as Britain leaves the European Union, and explains the role the Brexit Health Alliance is seeking to play.

See also Patients 'at risk' in Brexit negotiations, from the Brexit Health Alliance.  It has five collective 'asks' as the UK negotiates to exit the EU:

1. Maximum levels of research and innovation collaboration
2. Regulatory alignment for the benefit of patients and population health
3. Preservation of reciprocal healthcare arrangements
4. Robust coordination mechanisms on public health and wellbeing
5. A strong funding commitment to the health and public health sectors

See also What impact will Brexit have on the health and social care workforce? from The King's Fund

Rights of EU Citizens after Brexit

The government has published a proposals paper which sets out an offer to secure the rights of EU citizens and their families in the UK post exit from the EU. 

What do your EU staff need to do?

• You can advise staff that there is no need to do anything now.
• The documentation obtained under the current process to apply for permanent residence status will not be valid until after the UK leaves the EU, so there is no need to go through this process now.
• It is anticipated that a new online application process will be in place in 2018, at which time EU citizens will be able to apply for documentation to confirm they have permission to continue to live and work in the UK.

New data show 96% drop in nurses from EU since July last year

New figures have revealed a 96% drop in the number of nurses from the EU registering to practise in the UK since July last year.

The figures were obtained by the Health Foundation from a Freedom of Information request to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). They show that after a sharp decline from a high of 1,304 in July last year to 344 two months later in September, numbers have continued to fall, with just 46 EU nurse registrants in April this year.

The UK has repeatedly used international recruitment as a stop gap measure to fill staffing shortages, and since 2008 the majority of international nurses registering in the UK have come from within the EU.  But the fall in EU registrants suggests that a more sustainable long-term approach to workforce planning is urgently needed.

NHS could face bill of over half a billion pounds from Brexit

A new briefing from the Nuffield Trust shows the NHS could face large costs if retired British people living in other EU countries decide to return to UK in the event of their healthcare being withdrawn after Brexit.

Brexit And The NHS: Election 2017

This briefing from the NHS Confederation outlines the priorities identified by NHS Confederation for the new incoming government. It calls for all political parties to commit to a series of pledges on Brexit ahead of the upcoming general election.

Keeping patients at the heart of the NHS: RCP's four-point plan for government

The Royal College of Physician's (RCP's) new Keeping patients at the heart of the NHS: RCP's four-point plan for government manifesto puts patients firmly at the centre of Brexit patient negotiations. The plan, created for the next UK government, sets out a series of evidence-based recommendations to support better patient care, ensure the NHS is adequately resourced to provide that care, and how the government can support people to live healthier lives in future.

Brexit And Health And Social Care - People And Process

This report from the House of Commons Health Committee explores the impact of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union on the provision of health and social care. The initial findings have highlighted the need for the Department of Health to plan comprehensively for any contingencies dependant on Brexit and the need for a pragmatic approach to workforce planning.

Brexit, Trade and Health

Now that Article 50 has been triggered, Britain’s formal process for exiting the European Union will begin. 

There is much uncertainty surrounding Brexit, particularly regarding the future trade and investment relationship between the UK and the EU, as well as between the UK and third states. What are the potential implications of Brexit on trade and investment from the perspective of health?

Brexit and the mental health sector

The potential implications of Brexit on mental health services were outlined to senior mental health leaders recently, by Elisabetta Zanon and Danny Mortimer of the NHS European Office and NHS Employers. 

Patients’ needs must be central to negotiations on Brexit

The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) calls on the Government to put patients and their carers at the heart of negotiations on exiting the European Union:

• The UK must continue to have access to a European licensing process for new medical treatments. 
• Patients and their doctors must continue to have the same level of access to clinical trials through European trials governance rules. 
• There must be continued free movement of medical professionals to avoid worsening the situation in medical specialties that are already on the National Shortage Occupation List and which include clinical radiology. 
• The planned Immigration Skills Charge4 of £1000 per year on the NHS for each worker coming to the UK from outside the European Union should be scrapped.
• There should be legal assurance of the rights of EU citizens in the UK including their free access to NHS care. 

Making the Best of Brexit for the NHS

Position statement form the Royal College of Surgeons.

Leading surgeons have urged government and the NHS to use Brexit to improve patient safety in the UK. The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) says giving job security to NHS staff from the European Union (EU), testing the language skills and competence of non-UK healthcare staff, enforcing more rigorous standards for medical devices and drugs, and relaxing training time restrictions for surgeons should now be a priority.

According to the RCS, the UK, like other EU countries, has often been required to accept the lowest common denominator of standards across Europe, sometimes putting patients at risk. A new position paper from the RCS,Making the Best of Brexit for the NHS, outlines areas of opportunity that could strengthen patient safety, as well as risks to the NHS, now that the UK has voted to leave the EU.