Not a chance, you’ve just fallen for the government’s can’t be our beloved Brexit causing this, so let’s blame women for the HRT shortages instead narrative. The NHS agrees it’s Brexit.
I suppose you are unaware that Brexit has caused shortages of over 300 types of medication including HRT? And that over 2,000 medications were completely withdrawn from NI due to Brexit?
The pandemic then worsened the shortages, and now the pandemic is over, the shortages are persisting.
Do you think there’s been “increased demand” for all of these?
Do you really think that these global manufacturers can’t ramp up production by the 2% our “increased demand” accounts for compared to their total production? It’s logistics and supply chain….which is down to Brexit.
March 2019:
“Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, told Newsnight one trust in England had reported a shortage of 300 different drugs.
"Trusts up and down the country are telling us that they have experienced a sharp spike in shortages of drugs in the past month," she said.
"We cannot confirm with absolute certainty that it is Brexit but the timing and unprecedented nature of these shortages suggest a correlation with Brexit preparation.
"This most probably is the impact of a combination of stockpiling and price pressure as the Brexit deadline approaches. We have not seen a spike like this before."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47646193
Oct 2020
We had stockpiled drugs for Brexit, and then quickly ran out during Covid making the already existing shortages even worse:
“Hospitals could face shortages of drugs during the second wave of Covid because some of the medicines stockpiled for Brexit have already been used, NHS bosses have warned.”
”All of the issues we feared about Brexit remain. None of those have gone away because we are in a pandemic. It’s important to remember drug supplies could be compromised”, said Saffron Cordery, the organisation’s deputy chief executive.”
”What we were relying upon in Brexit was a supplies stockpile. I would suggest we have eaten into that stockpile because of Covid. We need to think about what the stockpiles are looking like.”
www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/06/nhs-faces-drug-shortages-as-brexit-stockpile-used-in-covid-crisis
25 Apr 22
“Research by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) shows that acute medicine shortages in England is resulting in abuse from frustrated patients as more than two thirds of the pharmacies report being without stock every day.
The PSNC, which represents community pharmacists across England, says that many patients are unable to get their regular medication resulting in growing animosity towards pharmacists.
According to their report, the association says that many drugs are in short supply including Hormone Therapy Replacement due to Brexit and the pandemic which has affected supplies of key raw materials needed in the manufacture of many drugs.”
euroweeklynews.com/2022/04/25/acute-medicine-shortages-in-england-hit-patients-and-pharmacies/
15 Jan 23
“The UK’s decision to exit the EU impacted immediately on medicine supply and cost concessions through the devaluation of the sterling. Exit polls predicting a Leave victory saw the pound slump to a three-decade low from which it has never recovered.
The NHS has to spend more of its pounds to get the same amount of medicine as it had before “because of perceptions about what Brexit would mean,” Dayan says.
He adds that while medicine shortages are a global issue at the moment, “there is evidence that aspects of this in the UK have been exacerbated by Brexit”.
“A weakened pound is not the only way in which leaving the EU looks to have impacted on medicine supplies and prices in the UK. “Bureaucracy and barriers at the border” may also have added to prices, leading to more concessions having to be made.”
““Particularly for generic medicines which are not expensive [and not] high-end products where extra transport costs can be soaked up,” Dayan says. “They’re price-competitive, bulk, commodity products. A change in transport costs could have an effect.
“In many cases they would have been supplied on a whole-Europe basis before [Brexit]. Some will be shipped straight to the UK, but many will be shipped to Rotterdam or Hamburg etcetera.”
And looking to the future, the UK may find itself outside of key measures to combat medicine shortages being looked at by the EU.”
www.thenational.scot/news/23252117.brexit-worsened-uk-medicine-shortages-nhs-budget-pressures/
Yesterday:
“The UK avoided a no-deal Brexit, and civil servants and suppliers managed to avoid a sudden crunch in medicine supplies when a more organised exit from the single market occurred at the start of 2021. Yet we nonetheless found clear signs that the UK has faced elevated shortages to some extent since 2016.
The number of medicines for which the Department of Health and Social Care has had to agree to pay higher than the previous going rate in order to maintain supply has risen from around 20 a month before the referendum to consistently over 100. Multiple ‘Serious Shortage Protocols’, allowing pharmacists to rewrite GP prescriptions because the intended drug is running out, have been in force.
Some of this is a global phenomenon which we also see in the EU. But the UK’s problems in ensuring consistent supply of medicines seem to be especially consistent and to have started earlier. While we intend to look further into the different factors, the anomalous drop in UK imports of medicines – which has risen in other countries – suggests post-Brexit trade may be a factor.”
ukandeu.ac.uk/what-has-brexit-meant-for-the-nhs/