The NHS is making "significant" preparations for leaving the European Union without a deal to ensure that the health service has the medicines and equipment it needs.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said that "immediate planning" is underway to ensure that people can continue to get the medicines that they need.

It comes after claims that Whitehall is preparing for an "Armageddon" Brexit scenario which could see hospitals running out of medicines within two weeks.

Mr Stevens told the Andrew Marr show on BBC One: “There is immediate planning which the Health Department along with other departments are undertaking around securing medicine supply and equipment under different scenarios. And that will obviously crystallise when it’s clear later this autumn what the UK’s position will be.”

Around 370million packs of medicine are imported to the UK from the EU every month. Pharmaceutical giants in the UK also send significant amounts of medicine to the European Union.