Drug shortages, now normal in UK, made worse by Brexit, report warns
Drug shortages, now normal in UK, made worse by Brexit, report warns
Some shortages are so serious they are imperilling the health and even lives of patients with serious illnesses, pharmacy bosses say
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Drug shortages are a “new normal” in the UK and are being exacerbated by Brexit, a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank has warned.
A dramatic recent spike in the number of drugs that are unavailable has created serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, the NHS and patients, it found.
Nicola Swanborough, head of external affairs at the Epilepsy Society, said: “Our helpline has been inundated with calls from desperate people who are having to travel miles, often visiting multiple pharmacies to try and access their medication.”
But Britain’s departure from the EU in 2020 has significantly aggravated the problem, laid bare the “fragility” of the country’s medicines supply networks and could lead to the situation worsening, the report said.
That has forced the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to agree to pay above the usual price for drugs that are scarce to try to ensure continuity of supply far more often than it used to.
Ministers should agree to pay more for generic medicines, which are usually much cheaper than branded ones, to help tackle shortages, Hill added.
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So there are cheaper generics available and they are forcing people to go without?
Sort off. But much more complex.
- not all drugs have generic options. This would only solve a % of the issues. As many newer groups can still be under patient. Sometimes for more the 40 years after discovery.
Lets just say pharmaceutical companies find lawyers a valid expense.
- but more to the point. Even generics only help if we can get them. Our NHS has restrictions on what they can charge the gov to supply certain drugs. All calculated on global prices. But when it costs more for a company in the EU to send drugs to the UK. Then to send those same drugs to an EU nation. Guess who gets them first.
So the issue is more about a price cut obsessed government being willing to admit their choices on how to implement brexit. Had a cost.
Not a very politically effective thing for them to do.
So they shove head in the sand and shout nope its down to the pharmacists to find better deals.
And this has been happening since before covid.