Medications Post-Brexit

Apparently there are plans afoot for emergency flights to be carried out in the case of a shortage of life saving drugs.

It will initially cost £4bn to set up.

None of that is necessary.

We live in a mad country.

My DHs life saving drugs are manufactured in Spain.

I believe the "Brexit causing chaos" scenario to be much like the millennium bug threat. Remember how we were warned planes would fall out of the sky etc.?
At that time I took simple precautions such as altering the date on my computer. This time I imagine I'll get my prescription renewed in advance.
Frankly I believe it is all scaremongering for political reasons.

esspee then you need to tell Johnson’s government as it is them that are tendering for emergency flights for drugs and medical equipment post Brexit.

Only if there’s no deal.

I think there’ll be a deal at the 11th hour.

Or very soon after leaving.

And didn’t the British Medical Journal or the Lancet recently reassure everyone? I agree with you Esspee.

They may have contingency arrangements for life saving drugs, but many drugs that make life bearable for people are manufactured abroad, just check the packets. They may not be a priority. I cannot imagine there will not be a deal in the end, because the dilemma over the Irish border is insoluble if not.

Ur I'm confused, how is there going to be a deal after we leave?

It is still £4bn of unnecessary spending.

And didn’t the British Medical Journal or the Lancet recently reassure everyone? I agree with you Esspee.

And weren''t pharmaceutical companies required to sign non disclosure agreements so as to not frighten the people horses?

An elderly story but no doubt the NDAs are still in operation.
www.politico.eu/article/uk-asks-drug-companies-to-sign-no-deal-brexit-gag-clause/

As for the Year200 bug, there was huge world wide preparation for it well in advance. A great deal of money and and man hours was expended on debugging. It was taken very seriously by the IT industry.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45083650

Any delays will be down to the pharma. companies themselves. They delight in holding back. Look at the many life-saving drugs that they won't release because of the " cost " of them to the public. We can blame the US Congress for keeping the prices of drugs high. No wonder Trump is rubbing his hands right now at a no-deal Brexit.

There are shortages of HRT, some insulin products and TPN feed bags all nothing to do with Brexit.

Not sure of your point gg13

WWMK2 just trying to point out that the supply chain for medications is “fragile”.

Oh yes I see. Thank you

The government's own "Yellowhammer Report" (published in today's Sunday Times) predicts disruption to medical supplies. That's not Project Fear - it's what the government actually knows will happen.

But who trusts the government to get anything right? Maybe the whole country will be sprinkled with fairy dust by all those unicorns! And watch out for flying pigs!

I haven’t read the “leaked yellow hammer report” but I have managed to read the Gibraltar Governments response in which it states that it is old and things have moved on.

In all honesty I am struggling to find truth/trust in any report/statements issued.

I can see no resolution to the current situation.

Esspee The reason that the millenium bug didn't happen is because thousands of computer people the world over were engaged in ensuring that it didn't.

I’ve already had problems with my meds - I’m on 28 prescriptive drugs per month and got a message from my surgery that they couldn’t t get hold of one important one so would I just like to try elsewhere. I did and it had simply been stopped in manufacture.I was told to wait a couple of months and see if manufacture restarted. Fortunately it did but it had left me two months of real suffering with no meds and no alternative.
So I have decided to make my own arrangements and get my most dependant meds’ from elsewhere and hopefully will have enough to get me through any transition period. It’s not cheap but it works. You, have to take control because those who are in control ....aren’t.

I have 10 prescription meds, having already cut down on some I felt weren't doing me any good. I just can't afford to buy any meds privately, so I can't make alternative arrangements.

PS. I'm a WASPI woman who's coping, but only just about. My GP has suggested treatments which aren't available on the NHS (or the waiting list is incredibly long) and I can't afford those either. I put up with it, but paying for medications is beyond my budget.

I understand where you’re coming from ...I’m a waspi too although I seem to have lost a bit of my sting!
I have managed to do so by using savings and selling things I don’t need. I am damn well determined to get my pension and getting meds I depend on is the only way.
My mother worked hard all her life, paid horrendous tax and died at 51...I’m not going down that road. Too many Fat cats and that’s an insult to a poor animal but not enough of an insult for those who run sorry ruin our lives.
Awake, arise or be forever fallen!

The shortage of certain drugs has been a problem for years, this year it seems worse, and no particular reason unless the drug companies are stockpiling. The Elleste HRT shortage seems to have eased, but the latest is no IV food packs for those who cannot eat normally, there are people really suffering, but no sign of relief for them.

Good for you, Mincub, but I'm already living on savings and have already sold everything of any value. I seriously don't have any "spare" money. I don't have the choice to buy privately and the CCG rules mean I can't stockpile.

There ARE reasons, B9exchange. The government has "gagged" parts of the NHs and some pharma companies, so it's impossible to get at the truth. It's all to do with money. Some pharma companies have stopped production, because their meds are no longer profitable. Some aren't selling to the NHS because they can get more money elsewhere and Brexit is causing uncertainty for the market. Pharma companies won't sell long-term if they think their income could be disrupted. Trump is now saying that any US/UK deal would include trying to get the NHS to pay more for American drugs, which could mean that the NHS decides to stop buying them.

I m a lucky person who takes no meds but I really really feel for those that do as I think there may well be problems
Both my best friends rely on prescriptions quite heavily
I think it so dismissive to say it is fear mongering and as I ve heard said ‘we managed in the war etc etc’ We are not prepared and I m still praying the dreadful Brexit won’t happen

Does anyone remember this thread from last year explaining the Overton Window political theory?

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1250287-The-Overton-Window?

Just try comparing the current preparations for war-time deprivations to the "sunlit uplands" promises of the leave liars three years ago. The unthinkable now seems to have become acceptable to most of the people who voted leave.

The ‘Overton window’ is a term from political science meaning the acceptable range of political thought in a culture at a given moment. It was the creation of Joseph Overton, a think-tank intellectual based in Michigan, who died in 2003 at 43 after a solo plane accident. His crucial insight, one which both emerged from and was central to the work of the think tank Right, was that the window of acceptability can be moved. An idea can start far outside the political mainstream – flat taxes, abolish the IRS, more guns in schools, building a beautiful wall and making Mexico pay – but once it has been stated and argued for, framed and restated, it becomes thinkable. It crosses over from the fringe of right-wing think-tankery to journalistic fellow-travellers; then it crosses over to the fringe of electoral politics; then it becomes a thing people start seriously advocating as a possible policy. The window has moved, and rough beasts come slouching through it to be born.

British politics has never seen a purer example of the Overton window than the referendum on membership of the EU.

www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n15/john-lanchester/brexit-blues