SNP MEP Alan Smyth and party MSP Bob Doris have urged the EU to allow Scotland to remain within a Europe-wide network of medical expertise on rare diseases after being told it will be expelled.

The sector fears shortages: of medicine, of staff, and of answers.

Around a third of dentists who qualified in Europe but who currently work in the UK say they are considering leaving the UK, largely because of Brexit.

Almost a third of dentists from Europe are considering leaving the UK in the next few years.

In the wake of last week’s triggering of Article 50, marking the formal start of Brexit negotiations, and the publication of the ‘Great Reform Bill’ it is a good time to ask what the effect will be on dentistry, both NHS and private.

BREXIT is being blamed for a fall in the number of NHS dentists working in Scotland.

Council leaders were told Brexit and a poor deal on NHS contracts had also added to the local recruitment crisis, which has left people being forced to travel out of county to get treatment.

“We’ve also lost all the EU dentists with Brexit, and that’s made a big difference,” said Ms Naylor.

Dentists say staff have returned to their home countries in Europe after Brexit, and there are delays in bringing in new dentists from overseas.

Brexit shut off the “relief valve” of immigration from the European Union, worsening workforce shortages in health and social care in the UK, a report from the Nuffield Trust think tank has concluded. / Brexit’s effect has been felt particularly in specialties such as cardiothoracic surgery and anaesthesia, and in dentistry and the care sector.

Sam Bright examines the contribution of Brexit to our current healthcare crisis.

Specialisms such as dentistry have shortages and EU exit still causes issues with medicines in Northern Ireland, thinktank finds.

The impact of Brexit has only added fuel to the fire of severe challenges facing health and social care in the UK, warns the Nuffield Trust.

A Norfolk dental surgery has put its recent struggles down to the impact of Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic and the government changing "how NHS dentists get paid". / The email continued: "Brexit: Many dentists that fell into the European bracket had to hand back their NHS provider number when we left the EU, taking a big chunk of qualified NHS dentists with it."

The Nuffield Trust think tank has published a new report on the impact of Brexit on the UK’s health and care services. The ongoing monitoring work, funded by the Health Foundation, covers the impact on the NHS and social care workforce, medicine and medical devices supply and the economic cost, and reveals negative effects across these areas.