Journalist and campaigner Michael McEwan discusses the ramifications of a hard Brexit on the health and social care workforce, as he calls for Public Health Scotland to turn its focus to how growing privatisation of health services and loss of EU staff across the sector will impact health and wellbeing over the longer-term.
For the first time in my life there are adverts on TV to recruit for more carers, as a result of Brexit.
Before the vote, not enough consideration was given to what leaving the EU would mean for the nation's social care workforce; a case of out of sight, out of mind.
There are staff shortages pushing the NHS to breaking point, as the UK government opted to push through a hard Brexit, all in the midst of a pandemic.
In addition, one in five beds in Scotland's major hospitals are occupied by elderly people who could be discharged, except there is nowhere for people to go. One in six beds in care homes are currently empty, however the homes can't take in more patients because of staff shortages due to Brexit.
That means people may be more likely to end up needing emergency help, because care providers are passing patients back to councils as they can't fulfil their needs. But councils too are struggling with shortages.
Between 6% and 9% of care home nursing assistants and an unknown number of support workers were EU citizens, many of whom have now left in the aftermath of Brexit.
The Leave campaign made claims in the run up to the vote that an "independent" UK would gain back £350m a week to spend on the NHS. However there has been less funding for the NHS in the last three years, which the UK government now attributes to the pandemic.
The Remain campaign predicted this lack of access to EU staff, coupled with a historic lack of funding to recruit and train UK based healthcare workers - crucially nursing staff, where one in ten vacancies remain unfilled.
The UK has a proud legacy of free health care at the point of delivery, however ongoing trade deals with the US are rumoured to include partial privatisation of our NHS, whilst outsourcing health care services to for-profit companies has been consistently growing since at least 2013.
A month after lockdown began, in April 2020, a new agency was created called Public Health Scotland. Its main focus so far has been the impact of covid 19 on Scotland's healthcare services but, as the dust settles on the pandemic, focus must now turn to Brexit implications.
Michael McEwan is a freelance journalist.
Read more from Michael: A hospital is not a home; A national care service for us all; Challenging learning disability stigma;
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