Health Services: Disability

(asked on 17th October 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the risks posed to people living with disabilities by a lack of availability of (a) medicines and (b) essential medical equipment in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 22nd October 2019

The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products once we have left the EU.

The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, has analysed the supply chains of over 12,000 licensed medicines used by patients in the United Kingdom and close to half a million product lines of medical devices and clinical consumables with an EU/European Economic Area touchpoint. This approach means that the medicines and medical equipment used by people living with disabilities are included within our planning.

We continue to implement a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/medicines-and-medical-products-supply-government-updates-no-deal-brexit-plans.

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