No-deal Brexit may worsen drug shortages, pharmacists warn

摘要

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society fears that there will be drug shortages in a no-deal Brexit despite the government's "multi-layered approach" to mitigate risks. Documents compiled this month by the Cabinet Office under the codename Operation Yellowhammer, which were leaked to the Sunday Times on 18 August, set out the likely effect of Britain leaving the EU without a deal. The reports posited that, because three quarters of medicines come to the UK from France through Dover— where disruption is expected to last as long as six months—these drugs were vulnerable to severe delays. "While some products can be stockpiled, others cannot because of short shelf lives," the authors of the documents said. They added that the Department for Health for England was developing a multi-layered approach to mitigate the risks.