NHS should not be SACRIFICED for Brexit 'sovereignty', blasts doctors' union chief
THE CHAIRMAN of a doctors’ union has hit out at the Government over the “uncertainty” presented to EU nationals working in the NHS because of Brexit.
Medical chief: NHS shouldn't be sacrificed for 'sovereignty'
Dr Mark Porter, of the British Medical Association (BMA), said health services were not worth sacrificing in order for Britain to regain “sovereignty”.
The comments come after the group found four in 10 EU doctors were considering leaving the UK following its exit from the trading bloc in a survey of 1,193 doctors.
He told Express.co.uk: “One of the things we’re learning just recently is that Parliament doesn’t, in fact, get a say on the laws that are going to govern our country in the near future.
“It’s all going to be done by secondary legislation proposed by government ministers so sovereignty is a negotiable concept really in relation to what we’re gaining.
BMA council chair: Brits alone won't solve NHS staff shortage
I’m not sure that there is any price worth paying for trying to find a GP or going into a hospital and finding literally no staff in the relevant department
“But whatever we’re gaining, the thing that we need to do, the thing that we need to prioritise is our ability to carry on delivering the public services that Britain delivers to its citizens.
“At the moment, I’m not sure that there is any price worth paying for trying to find a GP or going into a hospital and finding literally no staff in the relevant department.”
He said investment into increasing the number of British doctors was crucial in the long term, but not in the years directly after Brexit with 10,000 NHS doctors – 6.6 per cent of the UK medical workforce – having qualified in Europe.
Dr Porter said: “There’s been an announcement that there’ll be an increased number of doctors recruited to medical school, I should say medical students recruited to medical school.
“The big problem is this, we’re talking about short to maybe medium-term problems in staffing the NHS, in finding people to look after the patients the NHS currently has.”
He said students working towards becoming qualified doctors today would not solve a potential staffing crisis.
He continued: “A sixth former interviewed and accepted for a place in medical school won’t qualify, today, as a GP before the year 2028 and they won’t qualify as a hospital consultant before the year 2032 because of the amount of time it takes to go through medical school and then to go through post-graduate training.
“So that can only be a long-term solution. It’s a solution we need to work on and of course, it’s an important thing to do in itself but it doesn’t address the Brexit problem we have immediately.”