Over the last six months, I have come to see part of the British medical supply chain at close quarters. I have had a couple of mild medical complaints which have necessitated repeat prescriptions.
I won’t bore you with descriptions of endless mucking about on the patient website, trips up to the surgery and down to the pharmacist. Suffice it to say, being only slightly ailing in this country virtually demands taking on a second career to work the health system to your advantage. You become adept at queuing and sheer bloody-minded tenacity.
But don’t take my word for it. Next time you saunter past a pharmacist counter in the supermarket or elsewhere, just pause and have a little look. See the shelves and carousels of endless varieties of medicines. See the people queuing up and each mini-mystery being unravelled as staff try to work out what has happened with their prescription.
Now just imagine the merest blip in the complex, elaborate system which is the British medical supply chain.
As a retired supply chain professional, I can tell you that any sort of delay at our border is disastrous. Under Brexit “no deal” you’ll just need one French customs official to get out of bed the wrong way to stop a shipment of medicines and there’ll be people dying because they can’t get essential medicines.
It really beggars belief that “no deal” is still on the table. Today there is news that ten food company chiefs and the British Retail Consortium are warning MPs of the dangers of “no deal”:
We anticipate significant risks to maintaining the choice, quality and durability of food that our customers have come to expect in our stores, and there will be inevitable pressure on food prices from higher transport costs, currency devaluation and tariffs.
This is dangerous madness. This is not a re-run of the movie “Battle of Britain”. Jacob Rees-Mogg is not Kenneth Moore. For goodness sake, let’s wake up and make “no deal” impossible.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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17 Comments
I agree with you Paul.
‘No deal’ appears, at least to me, what the ‘Malthouse compromise’ (that Theresa May is now applauding) will achieve. It seems to confirm that, no matter what, we leave on the 29th in the hope that the EU will agree to the bits we don’t like (even though they have stated time and again that they won’t)…
As an insulin-dependent diabetic also on various other prescription medicines [just checked; 16 on my online list in total, mainly for diabetes and blood pressure], I am absolutely appalled that the supply of essential medicines is so fragile, stocks are so low and we are reliant on ‘just in time’ foreign sources.
I’m glad then that we have… 59 days? forewarning to address these issues, grow stockpiles and mitigate the effects, rather than being thrown straight into it by the next French farmers blockade, Icelandic volcano or a Lembit Opik style meteor strike in the Atlantic.
Who knew things were so delicate, and why was nothing done about this when the LD’s were ‘in government… after all, you got the ‘Health and Social Care act’ through’ despite THAT not being in the coalition agreement, despite even conservatives now saying it’s destroying the NHS.
Completely agree with Paul. At the minimum, putting all other issues, if the Prime Minister goes back to Brussels to extract changes, a guarantee of no disruption of medical supplies must be one of them.
Last year, almost 35,000 people received an organ transplant – the number of surviving organ recipients (heart, lung, liver, kidney) now runs into many thousands. Without our daily immuno-suppressant drugs we will die.
Frankly, the level of debate on this by politicians of all parties has been pathetic. Cameron , knowingly and complacently walked into this nightmare. He must go on record as the most inept Prime Minister in the history of the UK. It stretches credulity that the party I voted for since 1964 gave him political oxygen between 2010-15.
I’m afraid no deal is becoming more and more likely. It will be a disaster, peoples lives will be ruined and people will needlessly die. One of the reasons I have been so hard on Brexiteers is because of the damage they have done and the damage their ongoing wet dream will have. Paul says a no deal is insane, true but a lot of people are cheering it on, are they insane, deluded or merely thick; a combination if all three I do feel. Our resident Brexiteers would no doubt disagree ( O sorry I forgot the Lexiteer), but remember this my dear Brexiteers and Lexi what ever occurs is your responsibility and no amount of squealing “I’m nice, I is” or “tis the fault of the EU” will change it.
Ah what is that I see coming over the hill, tis a fine bunch of Brexiteers resplendent in their Empire New Clothes, riding magnificent unicorns, what all you can see is a bunch of naked old blokes, riding donkeys with a paper horn tied to their head, have you no faith 😉
As a non-retired supply chain professional, my question is this – the risk in the supply chain for pharmaceutical products is significant, and has been for many years.
As such, why is it only being raised now?
It has been raised several times Yvonne but was dismissed by the Brexiteers ( and Lexi) as project fear. Many on the other side didn’t take it seriously because surely the Brexiteers couldn’t be stupid enough to leave without a deal covering this sort of thing. I’m afraid the feeling was we are “all good chaps, no need to get arsy with them” it will work out. Well they are not nice chaps, they are fanatics and that fact is finally gaining traction. So yes they will willingly leave without a deal, rejoicing and then weep crocodile tears as people die and say “Tis all the fault of the EU, it couldn’t be my fault I’m a nice chap”.
Yvonne
Generally “just in time” aims to reduce cost by finely balancing inventory costs with transport costs and the need to provide supplies for cover demand.
What that means is that things are set up so that there are frequent replenishments and stocks are reduced to a minimum. That does not mean that delays always cause shortages. There should be sufficient stock to cover normal delays. But longer delays become a problem.
I’m not a specialist in medical supplies. But if you look at car manufacturing parts, Honda in Swindon have estimated that, to deal with the delays of no deal Brexit they would need to build a new warehouse which would be the second largest building in the world.
Otherwise, what Frankie says. Many people have been relentlessly banging on about this issue since the 2016 referendum. I have been boring people to tears about it. So it is not just being raised. But perhaps people are only just now starting to listen!
https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/16319736.honda-fears-of-unprecedented-disruption-from-brexit/
I am afraid this is the end game. The only way to explain the strange behaviour of our Prime Minister over the last few years is that she has been determined to put Parliament in the position of accepting her deal or leaving the EU without a deal. In the meanwhile the forces of the no deal have been organised. They continue to set the agenda. I have watched a succession of ministers claiming that the EU is being awkward. They never explain how the EU can agree to a proposal that amounts to referring vaguely to a technological solution to the problem of Northern Ireland.
This morning a received through my door the “Weatherspoon News” – unaddressed so I assume the whole country is getting it. On the front cover “circle of deceit – How the metropolitan elite tried to con the British public about the need for a ‘deal’ with the EU – and about food prices post Brexit. See pages 20 – 21”.
I am afraid that it is getting too late to have a strong pro-EU campaign. We will continue along the path where those who can afford to circulate a free 48 page booklet to the country can set the agenda.
There is a mention of the Weatherspoon pubs that Tim Martin runs, somewhere under the picture of Nick Clegg, Teresa May and others.
Is there no one prepared to argue for the benefits of a democratic international organisation?
This high stake brinkmanship reminds me of the referendum when David Cameron took a risk and lost. It seems our PM is treading in his footsteps. Even if she does not want a no deal Brexit, she runs a real risk of getting one and then disappearing into the sunset. MPs did not do themselves any favours last night. They should be acting as a united group for sanity, our long-term future and clarity, not like a bunch of gangs following their own self interests.
On supply chain issues after a no-deal Brexit, what exactly are the problems which would stop goods coming into this country? (N.B. Genuine question from someone who would like to learn something, I am not a closet Brexiteer troll! 🙂 )
I can understand why we might not be able to export goods and how that lack of two-way movement could screw up a supply chain like Honda’s, but as far as imports are concerned, could we not simply choose to let any goods come in from the EU just as they did while we were members? Does the lack of a trade deal restrict our freedom to import, or is the issue more about practicalities, e.g. export problems causing chaos or lack of capacity at borders/ports/warehouses etc. and subsequent delays?
In any negotiation there always has to be a no-deal option.
Unless perhaps, if both sides agree in advance that there has to be a deal. So that would mean the EU has to agree too, which is unlikely. IMO.
@ Peter Watson,
“Does the lack of a trade deal restrict our freedom to import…………..”
Well no it doesn’t but if we are trading under WTO rules we can’t easily strike bilateral deals with individual countries or trading blocs like the EU. There is some provision for that but we’d have to sign a Free Trade Agreement.
The Most Favoured Nation principle, a slightly confusing term IMO, would mean, if we allow food in from the EU duty free we’d have to make the same offer to everyone else.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mostfavorednation.asp
There will be a deal on the terms of a withdrawal agreement. A short political declaration at this stage is neither here nor there.
We therefore waste mental energy fretting about a ‘no deal’ and remove our self from using the little influence we have.
That wa deal will probably resemble May’s Withdrawal Agreement which will return to the scene largely if not totally untouched. There could be some changes to the Political Declaration. And even a third document. Neither of these two will survive the following three years, so are purely there to win or lose votes in certain directions.
There will not be another referendum, though I can understand why, for campaigning reasons, the Lib Dems will continue to campaign for one. And it will be a future essential foundation for any party with as its USP one of seeking re-entry.
The ERG will be found to be irrelevant. As the Lib Dems are also in the short term because of our campaigning position.
Labour will probably end up abstaining at the last moment so that May’s WA goes through.
Here, therefore, is the real political landscape: or where things stand behind the bluster of politics:
Tories wish to diverge from the EU economy. (The WA does not settle that. The next two or three years will). But that is their end point and virtually the only one they agree with each other on.
Labour wishes to remain part of the EU economy but on a different political basis. (I would suggest that that is a Liberal position in terms of people’s access to influence over their own lives, though that will require constant political activism and vigilance because Labour want that power for themselves where we would want to to be handed back to the people.)
Lib Dems want to remain part of the EU economy and continue on the existing political basis with the EU. Partly this is a surrender to the Tories/New Labour forces based on belief that passing swathes of political power to the EU is a better option than continuing Labour and Tory majorities in Westminster .
Scot Nats want to be part of the EU economy and continue on the existing political basis with the EU but leave the United Kingdom.
Given the likely passage of the WA Liberals should look more closely at it. I have always thought that in three years time the UK won’t want to move on from it and the EU will be regretting that once again a perfidious Albion has got a lot of cake and is eating it.
@Peter Watson
“ what exactly are the problems which would stop goods coming into this country?”
That article I linked to above explains it a little.
Time delays, in essence.
At the moment, the supply chain lorries are just waved through at the borders with VAT invoices mostly being sorted out electronically.
Without that customs union facility, there are delays in customs.
Such delays are what Honda believe would require an extra 9 days of inventory and the second biggest structure in the world.
Cheers.
It sounds like the concerns about supplies of medicine, food, etc. are based upon anticipated delays in the short term caused by a “disorderly” Brexit rather than a no-deal Brexit per se which would be more reassuring if I could imagine this government doing anything in an orderly way!
I suppose such topics make for much better headlines than the more mundane but probably more complex supply chains and networks of manufacturers like Honda where materials and components might move in and out of the country before being part of a finished product, and which would be impacted by a no-deal Brexit.
“In any negotiation there always has to be a no-deal option.”
However, normally it is the one that people wish to avoid; the leading Brexiteers seem to want it to be the UK’s primary position ie. don’t even bother trying to negotiate anything different…
I don’t know about you Peter, but once an employee has tendered their resignation and the initial interview shows there is little realistically that can be done to resolve the underlying causes, I don’t entertain any negotiations on possible reinstatement. In fact if the employee is being particularly obnoxious, I might get HR to follow the leave process exactly…