The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care discusses a wide range of issues with a number of stakeholders and other Government Departments.<\/p>
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Medicines to treat bleeding disorders are in scope of our medicines contingency plans because these are licensed medicines. Contingency work for blood and blood components is being led by NHS Blood and Transplant.<\/p>
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We understand that these medicines are vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans include sensible mitigations for medicines that come to the United Kingdom from or via the European Union to ensure that the supply of medications for bleeding disorders and other essential medicines for patients is not disrupted. In developing our plans, we have received very good engagement from industry who share our aims of ensuring that the continuity of supply of medicines and medical products for patients is maintained and able to continue unimpeded after the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019.<\/p>
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We have asked companies to ensure a minimum of six weeks additional supply over and above existing business as usual stocks by 29 March 2019, or to make provision for airfreight of medicines that cannot be stockpiled.<\/p>
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That is why we are working to ensure we have sufficient roll-on, roll-off freight capacity on alternative routes to enable these vital products to continue to move freely in to the UK. Medicines and other medical products will be prioritised on these routes to ensure that the flow of all these products will continue unimpeded after 29 March 2019.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1585", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Stephen Hammond"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Wimbledon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Stephen Hammond"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-02-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-02-12T17:42:06.623Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-02-07", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Blood Diseases: Drugs"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with pharmaceutical companies on access to medication for bleeding disorders in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1533", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dame Diana Johnson"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Kingston upon Hull North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Diana Johnson"} ], "uin" : "218233"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1056004", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department of Health and Social Care"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1056004/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Treatments for bleeding disorders include pharmaceutical medicines as well as products derived from donated blood, such as clotting factors. As these are licensed medicines, they will be in scope of our medicine supply contingency plans. Contingency work for blood and blood components is being led by NHS Blood and Transplant.<\/p>
<\/p>
We understand that these medicines are vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans include sensible mitigations for medicines that come to the United Kingdom from or via the European Union to ensure that the supply of medications for bleeding disorders and other essential medicines for patients is not disrupted.<\/p>
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In August 2018, the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply prescription-only and pharmacy medicines to the UK that come from, or via, the EU/European Economic Area (EEA) asking them to ensure a minimum of six weeks\u2019 additional supply in the UK, over and above existing business-as-usual buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019.<\/p>
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We recognise, however, that certain medicines cannot be reasonably stockpiled. Where these medicines are imported from the EU or EEA, we have asked that suppliers ensure in advance plans to air freight these medicines from the EU in the event of a \u2018no deal\u2019 exit.<\/p>
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Whilst the stockpiling medicines and alternative air freight remains a critical part of our \u2018no deal\u2019 medicine supply contingency plans, we are also supplementing these with additional actions.<\/p>
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We have further secured sufficient roll-on, roll-off freight capacity on alternative routes to enable these vital products to continue to move freely in to the UK. Medicines and other medical products will be prioritised on these routes to ensure that the flow of all these products will continue unimpeded after 29 March 2019.<\/p>
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Throughout enacting our plans, we have received very good engagement from industry who share our aims of ensuring that the continuity of supply of medicines and medical products for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a \u2018no deal\u2019 EU exit.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1585", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Stephen Hammond"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Wimbledon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Stephen Hammond"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-02-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-02-11T11:34:59.203Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-02-06", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Blood Diseases: Drugs"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the supply of medications for bleeding disorders in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1533", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dame Diana Johnson"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Kingston upon Hull North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Diana Johnson"} ], "uin" : "217506"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }