While the story says there is a European wide shortage of drugs due to manufacturing problems, war in Ukraine etc, the extra red tape now enforced for customs imports means it’s become harder for the NHS to get the supplies of drugs it needs.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    38 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Professor Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the health of patients who rely on these day-to-day medications is being put at risk because of “very worrying” recurring shortages.

    The Nuffield Trust said the number of price “concessions” granted to the NHS by the government – allowing it to pay extra for medicines in high demand during shortages – had jumped repeatedly since the Brexit vote in 2016.

    Professor Hervey said international suppliers have to deal with separate batch-testing rules – the paperwork required to show that medicines are being tested properly – when delivering to the UK and the EU after Brexit.

    She added: “In recent times, we have seen Brexit, the war in Ukraine, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic … all of these have put extra stress on the medicines supply chain, stretching community pharmacies financially and often causing unavoidable delays in patient care.”

    Stephen Dorrell, who served as health secretary under John Major’s Conservative government, said: “It’s amazing to think Brexiteers thought it was a good idea to disrupt the supply chain and didn’t think medicine would be included.

    The president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Professor Claire Anderson, said Britain’s medicine shortages are “more acute than they were due to various factors” – pointing to manufacturing problems and fewer production facilities.


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