Health law and policy, devolution and Brexit

ABSTRACT

The National Health Service (NHS) was a critical symbolic issue in the European Union (EU) referendum. The practical ramifications of Brexit on UK patients, professionals, health research and public health are significant, with particular challenges in the devolved nations/jurisdictions. Whatever the form of Brexit, and future EU–UK relationship(s), these challenges will form a key part of health governance post-Brexit. A multilevel governance approach will help make sense of this new regulatory terrain, and its effects for health and the NHS. It is important to understand, raise awareness of and navigate the different Brexit effects for health in the devolved nations/jurisdictions, and the different Brexit effects for different aspects of health and its governance; the broader economic, social and cultural contexts of Brexit and their indirect implications for health; and how legal responsibilities for healthcare are a poor fit with the emerging realities of managing Brexit.

KEYWORDS:

• Brexit
• health law and policy
• devolution
• European Union

JEL:

• I10
• K30

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to the stakeholders who agreed to be interviewed for the research, and to those who participated in the stakeholder workshops held in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast during 2017 and 2018 under the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Brexit Priority Grant ‘Health Law Outside the EU: Immediate, Intermediate and Long-Term Implications’ (McHale, Hervey, Flear and Speakman).

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Brexit Priority Grant ‘Health Law Outside the EU: Immediate, Intermediate and Long-Term Implications' (McHale, Hervey, Flear and Speakman) [grant number ES/R002053/1]; and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Governance after Brexit Grant ‘Health Governance after Brexit: Law, Language and Legitimacy’ [grant number ES/S00730X/1] (Hervey and Flear).