New Cross Hospital chiefs draw up plans for ‘no deal’ Brexit

Talks are under way to ensure there are no disruptions to supplies of medicines and vaccines if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal next month.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital in the city, said there were three suppliers considered to be “high risk”.

But health bosses said they were not likely to stockpile medicine, on guidance from the Department of Health.

A taskforce has been set up by the trust to ensure New Cross can continue to function as normal if a deal is not secured.

A new report said: “The trust must consider and plan for the risks that may arise due to a no deal exit, ensuring we continue with business continuity planning.

“The trust has set up a Task & Finish Group to look at these areas of activity. To date, procurement has completed a high level self-assessment in December, highlighting our high impact clinical suppliers, and suppliers which are not covered by Department of Health. This is ongoing work being undertaken in terms of understanding our inventory stocks for different services as part of our contingency approach moving forward.

“Current advice is that the NHS should not stockpile additional medicines beyond their business as usual stock levels.

“The trust did establish that there were three suppliers which were considered as high risk and this has been escalated accordingly.”