houses of parliament question time yesterday

Alex Sobel spent longer asking the question than the time taken for the answer which was ….

“If there are concerns about a particular case the relevant health minister will be very happy to discuss it with the honourable gentleman. But in his more general point about the supplies of insulin, as part of sensible contingency planning, my right honourable friend the health secretary and his department has been talking to suppliers of insulin and other key medicines and treatments to ensure supplies will remain available whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.”

I think that there's already enough fear mongering over leaving the EU. I'm sure there'll be more to come.

Novo Nordisk's chief has already stated that they have doubled the stockpile of insulin products they supply to the UK specifically to cover for any eventuality. He also said that they have capacity chartered for air freight should there be problems with ferries and the like.
I doubt it will stop individuals increasing their home stocks, though...

http://www.pharmatimes.com/news/nov...r_double_usual_amount_ahead_of_brexit_1276015

As Helen says, they do like to waffle on. The worrying thing for me is not the fact that there won't be any insulin (that won't happen) but that they will change the type of insulin they are giving you, meaning the insulin you are currently on and that works for you will be gone and we'll have to make do with something new and not necessarily better or even suitable.

jackois said:

I think that there's already enough fear mongering over leaving the EU. I'm sure there'll be more to come.

Novo Nordisk's chief has already stated that they have doubled the stockpile of insulin products they supply to the UK specifically to cover for any eventuality. He also said that they have capacity chartered for air freight should there be problems with ferries and the like.
I doubt it will stop individuals increasing their home stocks, though...

http://www.pharmatimes.com/news/nov...r_double_usual_amount_ahead_of_brexit_1276015

Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be quite hard to stockpile insulin? I know that my Drs are on to you the minute you put a repeat prescription in one day before you usually do.

KK123 said:

Wouldn't it be quite hard to stockpile insulin? I know that my Drs are on to you the minute you put a repeat prescription in one day before you usually do.

Click to expand...

How does your GP know how much insulin you need.
For me this varies so much depending whether I exercise, carb load, illness, going on holiday (when I need to take twice as much, just in case), etc that whilst I may have an average amount of insulin, you could never say I get my insulin regularly every x number of weeks.
I would suggest any GP who complains about a prescription request going in one day early has no idea about type 1 diabetes.

... but I don't want to pull this Brexit thread in a tangential direction.

jackois said:

also said that they have capacity chartered for air freight

Click to expand...

Cripes, that'll be a lot of hand luggage! Hasn't anyone told them not to put insulin in the hold...

helensaramay said:

How does your GP know how much insulin you need.
For me this varies so much depending whether I exercise, carb load, illness, going on holiday (when I need to take twice as much, just in case), etc that whilst I may have an average amount of insulin, you could never say I get my insulin regularly every x number of weeks.
I would suggest any GP who complains about a prescription request going in one day early has no idea about type 1 diabetes.

... but I don't want to pull this Brexit thread in a tangential direction.

Click to expand...

Well I may have exaggerated slightly but the diabetes nurse does phone me when my prescription goes in a few days early and asks why. Once I explain my usage which is quite low doses at the moment, and give her an account of how many test strips I am using (which varies massively depending on whether I am on a 10 hour shift or not) she has never said no.

KK123 said:

As Helen says, they do like to waffle on. The worrying thing for me is not the fact that there won't be any insulin (that won't happen) but that they will change the type of insulin they are giving you, meaning the insulin you are currently on and that works for you will be gone and we'll have to make do with something new and not necessarily better or even suitable.

Click to expand...

I totally agree about the worry of drug changes; the pharmacists have been issued with guidelines on how to replace unavailable drugs. So, not only for insulin but for BP tablets, oral hypoglycaemics, etc. Generally this will probably go OK, but it is silly to take chances like this.

I guess that we will also lose a lot of EU pharmacists as well as EU nurses and other HCPs. Spanish nurses will not have their UK experience recognised by Spanish authorities after Brexit, so even more are leaving, often for the irish Republic

ALso, pre-Brexit, we got 1.33 euros to the pound but now it is down to 1.13 euros to the pound, despite the headlines from the Express newspaper that the Great British Pound has soared in value against the euro by 0.008 euros; so the drug companies will try to get the insulin in, but the UK will be paying more for it.

The great Brexit dividend continues; if it takes 50 years to return to profit, as Rees Mogg states, guess most of us will be dead by then. Sorry for the cheerful thought.

Best wishes

PS I seem to have stockpiled 2 years of inhalers, vitamin B12 jab, metronidazole gel, but I had been working on this since the Brexit vote. Government has told drug companies to stockpile drugs (ie pharma have to pay the bill) and have advised patients not to stockpile cos of the costs to the country - government is rarely worth listening to.