Highland Hospice warns of Brexit double whammy
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HIGHLAND Hospice has warned of a potential post-Brexit double whammy with medicine and staff shortages.
The Inverness-headquartered hospice, which provides and helps co-ordinate end-of-life care across the north, is facing huge uncertainty over the future supply of palliative care medicines.
And Kathryn Hamling, hospice head of clinical services, says the loss of care staff from Poland and other eastern European countries because of Brexit is an immediate threat.
Regarding the supply of palliative medicines such as painkillers, Ms Hamling said it was difficult to predict what would happen post-Brexit.
“The fears are grounded in the uncertainty of it all,” she said. “We don’t know what the effect of either Brexit will be, deal or no-deal, and that’s what we need the government to address.
“We are aware that there may be some delay or some difficulty in getting some very necessary medication.
“This is a cohort of people who are often taking complex drug regimes and if there was a delay or an inability to access those drug regimes, it would obviously affect the care we can give them.
“To have patients or families with that extra concern at a very distressing time is something we would want to avoid. So I think we would be looking for assurances about that access.”
She added that it seemed impossible to get a clear picture from either the UK or Scottish governments.
Regarding care staff, she said: “It is not so much our own staff although we do have a percentage of EU workers, but there is going to be a serious effect in the care home and the care at home sectors because they have a very high percentage of non-UK EU workers helping with end-of-life care. The loss of these EU workers is going to have an effect on people who could find themselves having to stay in hospital or the hospice longer.
“The majority of people being cared for at the end of their lives are at home or in care homes, and a significant proportion of people who work in these areas are non-UK EU nationals. If that is going to reduce, then a service that is already stretched is going to be stretched even further.”
The UK Government has said uninterrupted supply of medicines will be a priority in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and “if everyone does what they need to do,” including suppliers, hauliers and the NHS, then it is confident supplies will not be affected.
Scotland’s health secretary Jeane Freeman said: “We are working closely with health boards and local authorities to ensure they are as prepared as possible for all Brexit scenarios, including ensuring supplies of medicines, devices and vaccines are protected. Scotland’s health and social care sectors benefit enormously from the contribution of staff from across the EU. We greatly value non-UK EU citizens and their wider contribution to our society.”
