The Chief Executive of NHS England has confirmed that Britain should not face any shortages of medicine after Brexit, despite scaremongering by EU loyalists.
Asked if he could say “there won’t be any shortages of medicines” on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, top administrator Simon Stevens confirmed that, “as the Health Secretary said… if everyone does what they are being asked to do, particularly around the transport and logistics infrastructure, then yes that will be the case [that there will be no shortages].”
EU loyalists have long threatened that standing outside the EU Customs Union without a comprehensive free trade agreement could see the country run out of medicine and find difficulty importing medical isotopes, diabetes drugs, and other essentials.
Brexiteers have disputed these dire claims, given such problems are not observed in other advanced economies which deal with the EU on World Trade Organization (WTO) — or “No Deal” — terms, such as Australia and New Zealand.
Stevens also suggested claims there could be difficulty recruiting staff from the EU were overblown.
“About 5 percent of NHS stuff come from the rest of the European Union… given that more of our international staff come from outside of the European Union than inside the European Union at the moment, in principle there’s no reason why we can’t get this right,” he pointed out.
The number of NHS staff originally from European Union countries has in fact increased since the Leave vote in 2016, contrary to widespread allegations of a so-called “Brexodus”.
The NHS chief’s confirmation that the universal healthcare provider is ready for No Deal came shortly before another key plank in Project Fear’s case against a clean Brexit was kicked out, with the Deputy Mayor for Calais, France, saying claims there would be disruption, long queues of lorries, and onerous customs checks at the transport route between his city and the Port of Dover were “untrue”.
“We have been preparing for a ‘No Deal’ Brexit [for] one year in Calais… This in no way we will be slowing down the traffic,” he insisted — apparently spooked by British plans to re-open the port of Ramsgate in order to receive freight from Ostend in Belgium as well.
One civil servant involved in No Deal planning actually came forward to confirm that the country is in fact well-prepared for a No Deal Brexit, having begun in-depth planning for such a scenario some time ago.
The anonymous whistleblower suggested that the public and “nervous” parliamentarians are being kept in the dark about these detailed plans is a “purely political decision” intended to make the Prime Minister’s unpopular Withdrawal Agreement appear more palatable.
“Project Fear Mark (I think) III… claims that we will all ‘crash out’ over the white cliffs of Dover into the Channel at 11 p.m. on 29 March 2019 and wake up to certain chaos and doom… [I]t is absolutely untrue, as anyone who, like me, has been involved in Brexit work for the past two-and-a-half years in Whitehall will tell you,” he revealed.
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