Staff of 10 started work this month and could be expanded to hundreds

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The government has set up a team of troubleshooters to tackle problems in the NHS in the event of a no-deal Brexit, including drug shortages and the loss of key staff.

Ministers have admitted there will be disruption in the NHS if Britain leaves the EU on 29 March without a deal, and the team’s job will be to try to minimise that.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, disclosed this week that he was arranging for special flights to bring medicines from the Netherlands to beat anticipated shortages, and he urged NHS bodies in England to buy fridges in which to stockpile drugs.

The troubleshooting team started work this month, before the government stepped up its no-deal preparations as a result of the political deadlock over Theresa May’s Brexit deal and the approaching 29 March deadline.

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It is made up of civil servants from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and officials from NHS England and NHS Improvement, which together oversee the 240 health trusts and 197 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England.

The team is based in a newly created “operational response centre” at the DHSC’s offices in central London. It will coordinate efforts to address emerging problems before they interfere with the delivery of care.

There are only 10 staff on the team, but that figure could increase to “100, 200, possibly hundreds,” one official said. “They will be troubleshooters. They will deal with problems with the supply of drugs, staffing shortages, fridges in hospitals not working – all of the scenarios that could arise from a no-deal Brexit,” the source said.

Sir Chris Wormald, the DHSC’s permanent secretary, revealed the creation of the centre in a letter sent on Friday afternoon to all trusts and CCGs.

“The DHSC has strengthened its national contingency plans for no-deal,” he wrote. “With just over three months remaining until exit day, we have now reached the point where we need to ramp up no-deal preparations.”

Wormald said the centre “will lead on responding to any disruption to the delivery of health and care services in England that may be caused or affected by EU exit. [It] will coordinate EU exit-related information flows and reporting across the health and care system.”

NHS England and NHS Improvement will set up local, regional and national teams “to enable rapid support on emerging local incidents and escalation of issues into the operational response centre as required”, the letter says.

Wormald said some problems may end up “impacting across the health and care system at a national level”. He told the NHS bodies: “I recognise the uncertainty that you face.”