To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made, if any, of how many preventable hospitalisations have occurred as a result of medication shortages caused by Brexit.
Answered on
2 April 2024
The medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global. Supply disruption is an issue which affects the United Kingdom as well as the other countries around the world, and it can have a variety of causes, including manufacturing issues, problems with access to raw ingredients, and sudden spikes in demand.
Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a responsibility to manage and mitigate them, working in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the devolved administrations, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain, to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised.
Following the exit from the European Union (EU), the Department has worked collaboratively with industry to support trader readiness for the new border controls. While some suppliers experienced delays at the border associated with trader readiness, these issues were swiftly resolved with no sustained impacts on medical supplies, and the Department has no evidence of the EU Exit leading to sustained medicines shortages.