Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to support healthcare providers through winter 2019 in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement.

The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to support National Health Service healthcare providers ahead of winter. This includes £240 million of funding that has been made available to help patients with adult social care needs leave hospital when ready and free-up hospital capacity.

As part of a responsible Government, the Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for European Union exit. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the supply of medicines and medical products remains uninterrupted when we leave the EU on 31 October.

The Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels in the NHS and we have been monitoring leaver and joiner rates of EU staff on a regular basis since the 2016 referendum. We are not complacent and have plans in place to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high-quality services on which the public relies. Our overall programme of work is comprehensive, thorough and continuously updated and will stand irrespective of the terms in which the United Kingdom leaves the EU.

The Department is also working more broadly with delivery partners to ensure that the health and care system as a whole is prepared and ready to respond to disruption caused by EU exit.