Scottish NHS planning its own medicine stockpile for no-deal Brexit

●Work to ensure supply of vital drugs and equipment after crashing out of EU

NHS Scotland has drawn up a list of imported EU drugs and health equipment that will need to be stockpiled under a no-deal Brexit as part of “detailed” planning for the UK crashing out of the EU without an agreement.

Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s chief medical officer, said the NHS was working to “ensure that there are enough medicines for us in Scotland” in a no-deal scenario, including plans to secure supplies of “problematic” medical products from the EU.

Her comments came as a leaked email from health providers to the head of the NHS in England warned of a lack of adequate contingency planning in the health service south of the Border.

UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab met the EU’S chief negotiator in Brussels yesterday and agreed to move into “continuous negotiation” in a bid to resolve the continuing deadlock on issues, including the Irish border and trade.

With the stakes rising as time runs out to reach an agreement, Michel Barnier insisted the EU was not responsible for the growing risk of no deal, suggesting Brussels was “not impressed” by what he called a brewing “blame game” in the UK.

A breakthrough in time for an EU summit in October now seems unlikely, after Mr Barnier said a deal

Scottish Secretary David Mundell has urged warring Tory Brexiteers and Remainers to unite and rally round the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan.

The minister, who is the only member of David Cameron’s 2015 Cabinet still in his original post, warned that the increasingly polarised positions of the factions are not “generally acceptable to the wider public”.

Mr Mundell, who made the intervention ahead of Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab’s resumption of negotiations in Brussels, told news website Politico that there is no alternative to Theresa May’s plan.

Speaking to Politico’s morning newsletter, Playbook, he said: “People have to wake up to what the alternatives are.

“I think people have to be challenged. If they don’t like the Chequers deal, what is their alternative?”

He added: “Clearly there is a group of people who would just leave the EU at any cost, in any circumstances.

“And there is another group of people who would go back into the EU. Neither of those alternatives, I think, are generally acceptable to the wider public, nor would be of benefit now to the country.

“I think there is a growing reality that, other than extreme positions, there isn’t an alternative.”

Earlier this week, leading Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-mogg warned Mrs May that Eurosceptic Tory MPS will block the passage of her European Union withdrawal plans unless they are changed.