The Impact of Brexit on the Welsh NHS

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his Brexit Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:59 pm on 8 May 2019.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:59, 8 May 2019

I thank the Member for her supplementary. I think she hits the nail on the head. Our health services and our care services, perhaps in particular, depend on EU citizens to provide an essential service, often to very vulnerable individuals. She will know, I know, of the work that we've been doing to understand the dimensions of that. We've identified, and I've mentioned in the Chamber previously, that there is a particular issue around registered nurses in social care, where the numbers of those who are EU citizens are very considerable and higher than in the workforce in general. 

We will be ensuring that we understand and provide support in relation to the workforce in the health and social care services generally. I know the Minister is very focused on that. It's important for the Government at large, and we are looking at what cross-cutting work the Government can do to understand the impact that decisions elsewhere can have as well on some of these workforce questions in our health and social care services. I will also say that I think that there are other dimensions that come from the question of a time delay, which we also will be looking at, so that interventions that might be appropriate in looking to a March departure need to be revisited to see if they're appropriate in the context of a potential October departure. So, all of these dimensions are certainly ones that are currently live and under consideration by the Government.