As outlined in OnTheWight‘s exclusive report on Tuesday, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust is heavily dependent on EU nationals (nationals of other EU countries) for their specialist medical staff.
Working with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, OnTheWight was able to reveal the IW NHS had the second highest percentage of EU national doctors outside London (19.7%) and at January 2018 employed a total 93 EU nationals as frontline staff (doctors, nurses and midwives).
Contradiction in IW NHS Trust data
In response to our article, a spokesperson from Isle of Wight NHS Trust said the Trust had 256 “Medical Staff” (including consultants).
This directly contradicts information provided by NHS Digital, which states at January 2018 there were 1,085 frontline staff.
OnTheWight has sought further clarification from the NHS Trust about their figures.
“Quarter” of all medical staff EU nationals
Of those 256 “Medical Staff”, the Trust say 66 are EU nationals, meaning the IW NHS is dependent on a quarter of all medical staff as EU nationals.
The spokesperson told OnTheWight,
“The impact of Brexit on the healthcare sector is far from clear at this stage and no directs steps other than providing reassurance have been needed so far.”
They added,
“The advice from NHS Employers to Trusts is that When the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019, the UK and the EU negotiating parties have agreed that EU citizens who arrive in the UK before the end of the implementation period on 31 December 2020 will be able to continue to live and work here as they can now.
“Free movement will no longer apply after 30 December 2020 and EU citizens will be required to apply for either settled status or pre-settled status via the Home Office EU settlement scheme. Details of the EU settlement scheme was made available on 21 June 2018.
“Citizens of the Republic of Ireland will be unaffected and permitted to remain in the UK due to existing arrangements between the UK and the Republic of Ireland outside the EU freedom of movement.
“The government has previously confirmed that workers’ rights will be protected by the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, which will convert existing EU law into UK law. It’s not anticipated that many changes will be made to UK employment law, at least not in the short term.”
