brexit

British citizens living in the EU remain confused and worried about their post-Brexit healthcare and pension provision, despite the fact that both issues were settled satisfactorily in the withdrawal agreement, a Guardian callout suggests. More than 100 of over 600 British nationals on the...

The price the NHS pays for US medicines could soar under a trade deal with the United States after the UK leaves the European Union, according to an investigation. Despite Boris Johnson’s assertion that the NHS is not on the table, sources with knowledge of the initial trade discussions between...

A cavernous £11m warehouse stocked with £5m of medical products and food has been set up on a business park in south Wales in readiness for a no-deal Brexit. The Labour-led Welsh government said the money it had spent buying the warehouse could have bought seven MRI scanners for the NHS in...

Ministers will not know whether there are enough medicines, medical supplies or freight capacity to support the NHS if the UK leaves the EU without a deal next month, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found. With just five weeks to Britain’s scheduled withdrawal on 31 October, the National...

Health leaders have written to Boris Johnson issuing new warnings on the impact of a no-deal Brexit. In a letter to the prime minister, the heads of 17 royal colleges and health charities across the UK say clinicians are "unable to reassure patients" their health and care will not be affected...

The Government has set aside £25million to pay for an "express freight service" to deal with potential medicine shortages after Brexit . Critics of an increasingly likely no-deal exit say that the UK crashing out of EU could see drug shortages and spiraling costs for the NHS. But the contract...

Vital drugs for asthma, diabetes and cancer could cost up to seven times more under a UK trade deal with Donald Trump’s America, according to new analysis by Labour. President Trump and senior members of his cabinet have said they are tired of ‘foreign freeloading.’ They say any new trade deal...

The NHS would be “on the table” in any post-Brexit UK-US trade deal agreed by Donald Trump, the American ambassador has said. Woody Johnson said on Sunday said the “entire economy” would be part of any transatlantic agreement. Asked in the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show if this included healthcare...

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust’s board was told yesterday that there have been a stream of assurances required to ensure that preparations are in line with national guidance and recommended actions. In a report to the trust board, chief operating officer Nigel Lee said as the time...

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have given little practical advice to patients in England about what they can do if they are left unable to get hold of their normal drugs. The Patients Association campaign group is advising people who cannot access drugs from their GP...

The government has thrown a potential £500m Brexit lifeline to 180,000 British pensioners in EU countries outside the UK who rely on the NHS to pay for their healthcare. Health minister Stephen Hammond has said the government is committed to covering their healthcare for 12 months after exit...

Hospitals are likely to experience delays to cancer testing and treatment regardless of the result of next week's Brexit vote, BBC Newsnight has learned. The Royal College of Radiologists has told doctors to prepare for possible delays for some drugs used to detect cancer if there is a no-deal...

Government ministers have, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, awarded a critical NHS supplies contract to the firm behind the calamitous KFC chicken shortage. A UK logistics hub in Belgium will rely on the delivery company DHL to transport crucial goods across the Channel, The Mirror has...

“A no-deal Brexit … is expected to have an immediate and drastic effect on supply chains” for medicines. From the pen of an op-ed writer, such language might seem alarmist. But this comes from a report published this week in the Lancet, a world-class scientific journal – and it should terrify...

The government has created a logistics hub in Belgium where vital medical supplies will be stockpiled to stop the NHS running short of equipment if there is a no-deal Brexit. Stents, implants and other products needed to ensure that patient care is not disrupted will be stored at the hub, the...

In a letter to the House of Lords EU affairs subcommittee this month, health minister Stephen Hammond said that European transportation routes via Dover and/or Folkstone - upon which medicine manufacturers and suppliers rely - may be ‘subject to a significantly reduced flow of goods for at least...

Health service staff in Kent may have to sleep in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes if a no-deal Brexit ends up causing traffic chaos across the county, NHS board papers reveal. Kent Community Health NHS trust is exploring the option of personnel staying overnight in its premises as part of...

Supplies of medicine should be deemed more important than shipments of food if there is a no-deal Brexit, the health secretary has told MPs. Matt Hancock made clear his view when answering questions at the health and social care select committee. “The thing is that medicines will be prioritised...

Plans have been drawn up for the use of alternative transport routes and prioritisation of medicines as part of contingency planning for a no-deal Brexit, pharmacists have been told by the NHS. The government has been reviewing transport routes for all medicines “to maximise the ability for...

James Robson (not his real name), 44, has type 1 diabetes and since his teens has relied on medication from the NHS: a fast-acting insulin that he takes three times a day, a slow-acting one to work overnight, and multiple other drugs to help with his condition. Four months ago, he began to...