Imperial academics warn against Brexit
Academics from the School of Public Health say voting Remain is the “logical” option
Professors and readers in public health at Imperial have published a letter in this month’s Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine on how staying in the EU would help safeguard the health of British people.
The letter, signed by 17 academics, points to the economic downturn predicted by the Treasury should we leave the EU, and the potential government spending slash as a result. The public health experts say that this would mean either huge cuts in the NHS budget or the imposition of American-style health insurance.
The letter also warned that our heavy reliance on healthcare professionals from Europe (we currently employ about 29,000 in the NHS) would mean Brexit could leave us short-staffed, and endanger future recruitment efforts to fill in gaps in the workforce.
The letter goes on to say that healthcare for Brits living in or travelling around Europe would be unclear were we to leave the EU, and warned again of the prospect of health insurance fees where there currently are none.
FELIX reported last week that Imperial receives 20% of its research funding from EU sources, and the letter backed this up, saying that the EU’s current policy of free movement of people between member states allowed for the best scientists come together to do better research, which in turn allows for British institutions to climb the various world university rankings. The letter also praised Erasmus, and warned that the government’s university budgets would likely be slashed if we left the EU.
The editorial emphasised the collaboration between universities and how leaving the EU could endanger public health. Towards the end, the letter got a little more political, stating that the road of negotiation that would come post-Brexit would be long and arduous and could risk a renewed effort by Scottish nationalists to leave the UK.
Imperial staff have not been shy about putting their opinions on the EU out there. Two weeks ago, Alice Gast sent an email out to all students and staff reminding them of Imperial’s work backing Remain. Last week, an email was sent out to students and staff in the materials department, on behalf of the Students for Remain campaign group. However, the materials department said that they would send out a similar email on behalf of the opposition group if anyone from the campaign team got in touch.
