Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the impact of a no-deal Brexit on (1) the supply of medicines,
and (2) the staffing of the National Health Service.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care ()
(Con)
My Lords, we recognise that leaving the EU could affect a wide
range of areas across the health and care system. We are doing
everything possible to prepare, and our plans should help to
ensure that the supply of medicines remains uninterrupted. We
continue to monitor staffing levels, and we are working to ensure
that there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the
high-quality services on which the public rely.
(Lab)
I thank the Minister for that Answer. I suspect that this
Question is an appropriate one, given the debate we are going to
have later. Given that the majority of the House is trying to
save the Government from their foolishness of crashing out of the
EU, these are very important questions because they affect
people’s lives and their futures.
I have two questions. What is the department doing to sort out
the fact that the Home Office is still completely failing to
deliver how settled status can be offered? We are losing European
staff from the NHS, including senior and experienced doctors, at
a huge rate, which will mean enormous problems. Secondly, on
medicines, what measures have the Government put in place to
ensure that the shortage protocol does not negatively impact
patient safety, and how are the Government going to prevent the
UK from becoming a third-tier market for medicines and ensure
that we can access medicines and new drugs in a timely fashion if
we crash out of the EU?
I thank the noble Baroness for her comprehensive questions.
Regarding the EU settlement scheme, we are very pleased that
there are now record levels of EU nationals working in the NHS
and the social care system. We hugely value their contribution.
We need them, and we want them to stay. EU nationals working in
the NHS can obtain their long-term status in the UK through the
EU settlement scheme, and we are supporting NHS Employers in
promoting the EU settlement scheme. On 15 August, the Home Office
said that 1 million people had been granted settlement status.
Where there have been challenges to working through that, there
is support to address it. The EU settlement scheme statistics
confirm that not a single person has been refused the status that
they applied for. About three-quarters of people receive that
status without the Home Office needing to ask for additional
evidence on the length of residence; we are checking that is
working as it should.
When it comes to medicines, we continue to implement a
multi-layered approach to minimise any disruptions of medicines
and medical products in a no-deal scenario to ensure that
patients will have access to the medicines they need. There are
about 7,000 prescription-only and pharmacy-only medicines, and we
have been working very closely with suppliers, asking them to
hold at least six weeks of stock. The shortage protocol will be
led by clinicians, to ensure that patients can access the
medicines that they need and are not put at risk. Any decision
about this will be made between the patient and their clinician,
to ensure that it is appropriate for the care of the individual
patient in question.
Lord Deben (Con)
My Lords, the Government have claimed that they have done a
detailed account of what would happen if we were to leave the
European Union, as far as the health service is concerned. Why
have they not published that detailed account, why do we not know
any of those details and why is the whole country being kept in
the dark on all these issues? The Minister has the facts. Can we
please have them now, so that we know what we are debating about?
I do not believe that the noble Lord is presenting an accurate
picture of the case. We have been very clear with the public, and
a lot of information has been published on the MHRA website, on
GOV.UK, on nhs.uk and in a number of other places, regarding the
information about the analysis of the impact of no deal on
patients and on the NHS. We have been very clear about the risks
that we think there may be to the supply of medicines due to
temporary disruption at the border and the mitigating measures
that we have taken to ensure that the supply will continue
uninterrupted to patients and to the healthcare system. If the
noble Lord wishes to have more information, I am sure that he
would be very happy to write to me, and I will place a copy of my
reply in the Library.
(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Baroness is aware that virtually every
pharmacist and every GP is experiencing dire shortages of certain
medicines already. If the Government have such a good alternative
plan for a no-deal Brexit, why do they not bring forward those
plans to deal with the shortage that patients are facing today?
At any given time, there are about 100 to 150 medicine shortages
within our system. There is a team specifically set up in the
Department for Health and Social Care to deal with these
shortages. There is no evidence whatsoever that the shortages
within the medicine system at the moment are related to Brexit. I
work to respond to those shortages every day. The system that we
have set up to respond to the potential risks of no deal—which we
do not want to happen—is prospective. We are confident that it
will be able to respond to any potential border disruption on the
short straits.
(LD)
My Lords, what proportion of our pharmaceuticals are manufactured
in the UK? Have Brexit deal negotiators discussed pharmaceutical
supplies and, if so, what was the outcome? How many people will
be immediately affected if a no-deal Brexit is the final outcome?
I do not have the data for the proportion manufactured in the UK,
but I can tell her that there are 7,000 prescription-only and
pharmacy medicines with an EU touchpoint which we believe we need
to import into the UK at the point of no deal. We have been
working very closely with those suppliers, asking them to hold a
six-week stock, over and above the usual buffer stock that they
hold in case of a potential shortage, which they always hold a
risk of. We have also put in place a number of other
multi-layered mitigation measures, which include securing
capacity for re-routing freight. We have also put in place a
number of other measures, such as providing assurance of
readiness for logistics and supply chains to meet new customs and
border requirements. We have been working to ensure that we
communicate that to all those along the supply chains, in the NHS
system and in the pharmacy chain.
