Belfast Trust refuses FOI request on Brexit planning as 'too alarming'

[taytosandwich]

Interesting story this morning in the Belfast Telegraph. m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-health-trust-brexit-plans-too-alarming-to-be-seen-by-public-38468237.html

Health bosses have refused to reveal what plans are in place to protect patient safety in Northern Ireland if there is a no-deal Brexit, saying to do so could cause "alarm".

The Belfast Trust said it will not release a document outlining the impact on services, and the action it is taking to mitigate the potential effects, as it could cause "unnecessary confusion".
Health professionals have raised serious concerns about patient safety in the event of the UK crashing out of the EU.
It has been claimed that some cancer treatments and the supply of insulin could be affected by a no-deal Brexit.
It is also unclear whether doctors will be at risk of a criminal conviction if they carry drugs across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Meanwhile, nursing unions have also expressed concerns over the effect of a no-deal Brexit on Northern Ireland's crisis-hit nursing workforce, which already has 2,600 unfilled nursing posts.
It is estimated that more than 350 nurses live and travel from the Republic to work in the health service in Northern Ireland, so there are concerns that the number of unfilled posts could grow further.
The Belfast Trust was asked, using Freedom of Information legislation, to release a copy of its business impact analysis on the effects of a no-deal Brexit and associated contingency arrangements.
In a refusal notice, the trust said releasing the information was not in the public interest.

Easy to take it on from that. Appeal the refusal notice with the Trust. Get an internal review. If that fails take it to the ICO (which has offices in Belfast) and ask for it to be fast tracked.

I suspect this is only a small snapshot of problems a no deal will cause on health provision. We have already heard about how shared services between NI and ROI will be impacted...such as between Letterkenny hospital in ROI and Altnagelvin hospital in NI whereby they refer patients for each other’s specialist services. And the shared ambulance services all along the border. All this can mean is that more funds need to be spent by the health service needlessly on providing these services when we were promised brexit would save the nhs money.

And of course that is only one industry impacted. Fire services, coastguard, transport industry...... So many things are cross border and have workers travelling back and forth daily