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Brexit wishful thinking?

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Brexit wishful thinking?

Is it just me, or are the latest suggestions from Health Secretary Matt Hancock for maintaining the medicines supply chain in the event of a "no deal" Brexit wishful thinking?  Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Mr Hancock suggested the Government is looking at chartering planes to bring medicines into the country and fast tracking lorries through ports like Dover if there were problems. 

Anybody who has ever been in a traffic jam will know that "fast tracking" (or indeed any kind of prioritisation of one vehicle over another) will require a level of sophistication in traffic management and acceptance by other drivers that's almost beyond comprehension.  Alternatively, given what we know about the current rate of cross border transport of medicines manufactured in Europe into Britain, we could be talking about a lot of planes.

Much more helpful, I suspect, will be the regulatory changes being considered which will allow pharmacists to do the right thing by patients (as they usually do), by substituting what they have for what has been requested if or when supplies of particular medicines run out. Pharmacists face supply issues and have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get medicines patients need on a daily basis. 

It's a pity it takes the threat of a national emergency for these kind of actions to start being considered. 

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