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RCP calls on campaigning parties to put NHS at centre of Brexit talks

RCP calls on campaigning parties to put NHS at centre of Brexit talks
By Carolyn Wickware
5 May 2017



The Royal College of Physicians has urged campaigning parties to put patient care ‘at the centre of Brexit negotiations’.

In a manifesto created for the next government, the college sets out a four point plan to recommend better support for patient care, while ensuring that the NHS is adequately resource to provide that care.

The Royal College of Physicians has urged campaigning parties to put patient care ‘at the centre of Brexit negotiations’.

In a manifesto created for the next government, the college sets out a four point plan to recommend better support for patient care, while ensuring that the NHS is adequately resource to provide that care.

The four points outlined in the manifesto include placing patient care at the centre of Brexit negotiations; investing in, supporting and valuing the NHS workforce; delivering a new financial settlement for the NHS and social care; and supporting people to live healthier lives by investing in public health.

The manifesto insists that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU be used ‘as an opportunity to improve the health of the UK’.

The document, Keeping patients at the heart of the NHS: RCP's four-point plan for government, also urges the new government to ‘protect the rights of the NHS workforce to remain in the UK’ and ensure that the NHS is allowed to continue to recruit doctors from overseas to meet rising patient numbers.

The RCP also said the STPs should ‘reflect current need as well as future aspirations, with patients and doctors contributing to future planning through their local STP’.

This follows the Labour Party’s announcement that they would review all STPs and stop those that propose hospital cuts.

RCP president Professor Jane Dacre said: ‘With each new government comes a new opportunity to ensure that the NHS has the resources, people and services it needs to provide the care that our patients deserve. 

‘Patients must be at the centre of decisions made on healthcare provision, and that includes serious consideration of the implications of Brexit on patient care.’

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