NHS boss reveals no-deal Brexit

● Government making contingency plans to ship in medical supplies if Brexit talks fail, says NHS England chief executive

that he had been working with the government to ensure the supply of medicines and equipment continues in “any Brexit scenario”.

Earlier this month, it was reported that civil servants were preparing for a “doomsday” Brexit scenario that would see the RAF drafted in to transport medical supplies from the Continent. Planners were also said to be preparing for trade at port of Dover to “collapse” and supermarkets in Scotland to run out of food within two days.

However, as recently as October, Mr Stevens told the House of Commons health select committee that the NHS had not been asked by the government to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Stevens told the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show yesterday: “There is immediate planning which the health department, with other parts of government, are undertaking around securing medicine supply and equipment under different scenarios.

“That will obviously crystallise when it’s clear later this autumn what the UK’S position will be.”

He added: “Nobody’s in any doubt whatsoever that top of the list in terms of ensuring continued supplies for all the things that we need in this country … has got to be those medical supplies.”

Mr Stevens also said that every hospital in England had been asked to “reach out” to EU nationals working for the service.

But he claimed that new medical schools being opened in England would increase the number of home-grown doctors by 25 per cent in an effort to offset a decline in EU nationals working in the NHS. Across the UK, around 60,000 NHS employees come from EU countries.

He said: “Every hospital has now been written to asking them to reach out to their staff from the rest of the EU, providing that the Home Secretary has set a clear process by which people can apply to stay in this country which we hope they will do.”

Prime Minister Theresa May will assemble her Cabinet at Chequers on Friday in an attempt to get agreement on the postbrexit customs and trade arrangements the UK will implement.

Also appearing on the Andrew Marr Show, Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire said the government was preparing for “all eventualities”.

And in her first interview since being appointed to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Cabinet as Health Secretary, Jeane Freeman said Brexit was the “number one threat” to the NHS in Scotland.

She told a Sunday newspaper: “It could be they want to open up the NHS for private enterprise, and though our NHS is separate, it’s difficult to resist that if challenged.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said it was “deeply concerning” that Mr Stevens appeared to be confirming fears about access to medicines.

“That is a direct consequence of the UK government’s negotiating stance and the threat it has raised in terms of a no-deal scenario,” the spokesman said. “We continue to engage with the UK government about preparations for Brexit – but that is made difficult when the UK government is unable, even at this late stage, to answer basic questions.

“All these difficulties would be reduced if the UK government abandoned its plans for a hard Brexit and committed to staying inside the single market and customs union.”

0 Jeremy Corbyn said Labour would try to force a general election in