Patients face losing out with Brexit, healthcare group warns
An organisation gathering the NHS, patients and researchers says maintaining cooperation with the EU is key to patients' care.
Tuesday 1 August 2017 13:09, UK
Patients risk losing out if cooperation between the UK and the European Union is watered down because of Brexit, a healthcare group has warned.
The Brexit Health Alliance, an organisation that represents the NHS, patients and researchers, is urging negotiators to ensure that access to new research and medicines is guaranteed and cooperation is maintained after Britain leaves the EU.
The co-chairman of the group, NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dickson, said the negotiations present "great opportunities but also great dangers".
"Patients stand to lose out if we cannot go on collaborating in major medical research studies, if we cannot access new treatments and medical devices as we do now, and if UK nationals in the EU are no longer able to benefit from access to healthcare abroad, and vice versa.
"It is also vital that there is a firm commitment on all sides to joint co-ordination in response to public health threats."
The alliance includes the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries, Faculty of Public Health and National Voices.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said the Government will "seek to protect the existing healthcare arrangements for both EU citizens in the UK and UK nationals in the EU".
"We want to ensure that patients in the UK and across the EU continue to be able to access the best and most innovative medicines and be assured that their safety is protected."
Health Secretary Mr Hunt has recently said he wanted "a Brexit that works for business, it has to work for the NHS".
"The NHS needs to recruit doctors and nurses from all over Europe and that is going to continue after we leave the European Union."