A senior medic has warned that delays to cancer testing and treatment will be “inevitable” as a result of a no-deal Brexit.
Clinicians have been urged to reduce their workload in the days after 29 March, when the UK is due to leave the European Union.
BBC Newsnight reported the news that The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) has told doctors to prepare for possible delays for some drugs used to detect cancer, regardless of the outcome of Brexit.
With just 23 days to go before we leave the EU, MPs still need to get a meaningful vote on the Brexit deal, and if the no-deal is rejected, there is still potential to vote on extending Article 50, thus delaying the exit.
Dr Richard Graham, of the RCR, told the programmet: “Of course now there will inevitably be delays to treatment as a result of the Brexit process because we need to start booking our lists for the post-Brexit date.
“We will need to book clinics less heavily so that we’ve got more wriggle room if we don’t have the radioisotopes in order to diagnose and treat the patients.”
The RCR doctors also penned a five-page guidance urging clinicians to keep their “workload lighter for the first week following a no-deal Brexit, in order to see more clearly what the impact is likely to be. In the weeks leading up to Brexit you should consider how to prioritise requests based on clinical need, should supplies be compromised.”
