Brexit already hurting NHS

IT EMERGES that rather than delivering the fabled £350m a week for our NHS – a debunked statistic which has only resurfaced thanks to Boris Johnson’s craving for the limelight – Brexit has, in fact, already driven away almost 10,000 EU staff working on the frontlines of our NHS.

That’s doctors, nurses and other staff that our underfunded National Health Service cannot afford to lose.

The statistics reveal there are now 4,000 fewer nurses and 2,000 fewer doctors at a time when there is already a 40,000 shortfall of nurses and four in 10 consultant posts remain unfilled. Meanwhile, thanks to the dismantling of community services, one in three trainee GP posts are also empty.

There is already a staffing crisis in our NHS.

The reasons behind it include the fact that health funding is at its lowest level since the 1950s, NHS staff continue to see their real terms wages fall year on year and the scrapping of nurses bursaries. Brexit is destined to make the situation ten times worse.

Despite Leave campaigners promises, more than a year has passed since the referendum and the government has failed to guarantee the rights of the EU citizens and their families that have made the UK their home. In fact, it is actively promoting a ‘hostile environment’ for all migrants that is, admittedly, producing results - in as much as hate crime in the UK has rocketed.

Our NHS is paying a heavy price for the Government’s campaign to make EU citizens unwelcome in Britain. Keith Taylor Green Party MEP for the South East