Agenda item

Brexit Preparations

[To receive a verbal update from Health Partners and Public Health on the preparations for Brexit]. 

Minutes:

The Director of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, The Director of Strategy and Transformation at the CCG, the Consultant in Public Health at City of Wolverhampton Council and the Head of Public Service Reform at City of Wolverhampton Council outlined their respective knowledge of the Brexit preparations at their organisations.

 

The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust referred to the paper that had been circulated.  He commented that there was a team in London of 200 people who were designing contingency plans for the NHS, but he had no knowledge of those plans.  From a local perspective, the main area of his concern was medicines.  This was because there was a significant amount of medicines that were manufactured in Europe.  Most of the dressings used by the NHS were manufactured in China.  All the Trust’s heart valves were purchased from the United States of America.  He hoped that the Brexit teams in London were ensuring that the supply of medicine would not be disrupted.  He suspected that the goods and the consumables used by the NHS were 90% from global companies, who would want to keep their supply chain going.   

 

A Member of the Panel asked if chronically ill patients should be stockpiling their own personal supply of medicine.  The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trusted responded that he thought it would be disastrous if patients started to stockpile medicine because there was only a given amount of production capacity. 

 

The Director of Strategy and Transformation of the CCG stated that they had to have an appointed Senior Responsible Officer for Brexit.  Mike Hastings, Director of Operations had been appointed to this position.  A meeting was planned shortly with the Trust, the CCG and the Local Authority to discuss the co-ordination of any disaster plans.  Much of the work largely fell into existing disaster recovery plans.  The CCG had an assurance role working in collaboration with NHS England.  Costs of medicine could increase if tariffs were put on EU imports.

 

A Member of the Panel asked if there were any pharmacies that were having issues in receiving medicines.  The representatives from the Trust and the CCG responded that they were not aware of any issues or stockpiling.

 

The Consultant in Public Health remarked that there was a Resilience Team within Public Health, which was working closely with health partners and the Head of Public Service Reform at the Council, to understand the local landscape and to make necessary preparations.  They were also taking national direction on the requirements.  They had been given a template, which looked at worst case scenarios such as fuel and food shortages and had been asked to consider how this would impact on services.  The Resilience Team considered public anxiety over the implications of Brexit as probably being the major public health risk. 

 

The Head of Public Service Reform stated that he was the Council’s lead on the preparations for Brexit.  He was of the view that civil unrest and community cohesion were considered the biggest risks by the Public Sector.  The estimated European Nationals directly employed by the health sector across the West Midlands was about 6-7% of the total workforce.  There was a level of assurance that the health sector could cope with these numbers in their assurance plans.  Where there was not the same level of assurance was with regard to contracted services in both health and social care.  This was an area where he had established an action to try and understand further. 

 

The Director of Strategy and Transformation of the CCG asked for some further clarification over what was expected in terms of civil unrest. The Head of Public Service Reform responded that there could be protests which could turn into riots.  If Article 50 was extended European Elections could potentially have to be held in May.  If they did proceed, then civil unrest at polling stations could occur.  If there was a no deal scenario, there was a concern about access to food, medicine and fuel.  If access was not available, then he considered there could be issues arising from the lack of supply.  In parts of the country there could be aggravation to certain sections of the community.