All Brexit Scenarios Will Be Damaging to UK Health Service: Report

Public health care will take a hit however Britain leaves the European Union, but a no-deal exit will cause the most harm, a new analysis shows.

Written byCatherine Offord

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The UK’s National Health Service will suffer in all likely Brexit scenarios, with a “no-deal” exit—in which the UK would divorce from the European Union without an agreed-upon separation plan—creating the most havoc, according to a report published yesterday (February 25) in The Lancet. The study, which modeled possible effects of the UK’s departure from the European Union, found that public health would face negative consequences as a result of shortages in medical supplies, understaffing, and reduced investment.

“Some people will dismiss our analysis as ‘Project Fear,’” study coauthor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says in a statement, referencing a disparaging term used by pro-Brexit politicians during and after the UK’s referendum campaign. “But with just over a month to go to Brexit . . . it just isn’t good enough to keep saying that ‘something will work out’ without ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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