Brexit red tape blamed for severe shortage in NHS drug supplies

According to the Independent, antibiotics, hormone replacement therapy medication and drugs for ADHD are among those extremely short this winter.

Leading UK health experts have also highlighted recent problems obtaining antidepressants and medication for high blood pressure.

Academics are blaming post-Brexit rules that are making it harder to get life-saving drugs into the UK.

READ MORE: SNP: PM must 'focus on cost of living, not taking tents from homeless'

Professor Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the health of patients is being put at risk because of “very worrying” recurring shortages.

Meanwhile, Community Pharmacy England – which represents NHS pharmacists south of the border – said shortages are “as bad as they have ever been”.

Shortages have affected a range of medicines “across the board” since Brexit, according to a report by the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations, which highlights costly new paperwork and new regulatory barriers as major factors.

Healthcare think tank the Nuffield Trust, which contributed to the report, said there was “significant evidence” to indicate that Brexit is having a negative effect on medicine supply as well as staff shortages.

Mark Dayan, Brexit programme lead at the Nuffield Institute, said: “There are more signs of shortages at pharmacists, and there are more notifications from companies expressing concern about supply.

“Brexit certainly isn’t helping. There is a general burden on getting goods to the UK, customs declarations, extra checks – it makes it more costly to get medicine into the UK.

“The UK is not in the [medicine] supply chain quite like it used to be. Some firms that might have had distribution hubs in the UK now have them in EU countries, like the [Netherlands and Belgium] or Germany.”

Some of the UK’s regulatory processes for medicines are no longer valid in the EU, making it more time-consuming and expensive for international medicine suppliers to deal with Britain.

NHS managers and pharmacists often cannot stockpile supplies of drugs they may run low on because many go out of date.

READ MORE: Tories plan to monitor benefit claimants' bank accounts

Tamara Hervey, professor of EU law at City, University of London, said there had been a “discernible negative effect” from Brexit on medicine supply.

“For a supplier, it’s one set of paperwork for the whole of the EU, and a different set for Great Britain,” she said.

She added that 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.

“One hope is that the UK-EU could move towards mutually recognising batch-testing,” she said.

The British Generic Manufacturers Association said in September 102 products were listed as being in shortage – double that of the previous high in February 2022.

 The SNP’s health spokesperson, Amy Callaghan, said: “The fact that vital medicines are in short supply as a result of Brexit red tape will be extremely concerning for many. It is vital that the Westminster government do everything in their power to address this mess of their own making and ensure people get the medicine they need without delay.

“With both the Tories and the pro-Brexit Labour party content on continuing down this destructive path of Brexit red tape and shortages, the SNP are focused on a future where our NHS is protected in an independent Scotland inside the EU.

“Leaving the EU has been an undeniable disaster. However, by re-joining the European Union and the world’s largest single market, we could end the mountains of red tape and bureaucracy that the NHS is currently facing."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Medicine supply problems occur for a number of reasons, such as manufacturing difficulties, regulatory problems, supply of raw materials, sudden demand spikes or distribution.

“We have well-established procedures to deal with such issues, and work closely with industry, the NHS and others to prevent shortages and resolve any issues as soon as they arise.”