Brexit and health: 4 years on

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) 2024-02, Vol.403 (10428), p.705-707
• Main Authors: Bagenal, Jessamy, McKee, Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; EU membership; Funding; Health care facilities; Hospital facilities; Life expectancy; Life span; Medical personnel; Pandemics; Referendums; Supply chains
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00157-0

The health of the population in the UK is getting worse, as measured by life expectancy.9 However, this decrease in life expectancy partly reflects a trend that began in the early 2010s and has been associated with the imposition of austerity.10 Less money to invest in public services during the 2010s had a detrimental effect on the social determinants of health. The number of people waiting for NHS hospital treatment reached 7·71 million people in October, 2023, double that on the eve of the 2016 EU membership referendum.12 Doctors are on strike, which is always a marker of deep system failings in a health system,13 and funding remains inadequate to improve health facilities and equipment in need of urgent maintenance.14 Perhaps the most obvious impact Brexit has had is on the NHS workforce, which is a function of both recruitment and retention. Since 2016, numbers of health workers coming from the EU to work in the NHS have fallen precipitously. Expert reports document rises in drug shortages in the UK that seem to be more severe than in EU countries that have experienced the same global pressures.11,20 This situation has been partly attributed to regulatory divergence, resulting in extra costs and paperwork and the UK now being outside major European supply chains. MM holds research grants from the EU Horizon Europe programme, was a member of the European Commission's Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, and is Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, a partnership that includes the European Commission and WHO.