Selling drugs abroad -are the manufactures making money or making future problems for the NHS?
The spectre of drugs sales has reared its ugly head once again. Although it has been know for some time that supplies of drugs are being sold abroad, the subsequent shortage of essential drugs for critical conditions such as cancer, high blood pressure and epilepsy appears to be reaching record proportions. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is now expressing deep concern at the practice, and says that if it carries on it could put UK patients’ lives in serious danger.
The RPS has said that because of a desire to make a quick buck on the part of the suppliers and manufacturers, pharmacies are now facing shortages of over 40 well-known and essential drugs to treat serious medical conditions. They also claim that pharmacies are being ‘rationed’, with manufacturers and wholesalers limiting the supply they send to individual pharmacies. This results in pharmacies having to spend hours trying to negotiate extra supplies when they run out of their 'quota’. If they are lucky enough to be able to actually secure additional supplies, they can take days or even weeks to arrive.
The stress for patients on continual medication for conditions such as breast cancer is worrying, and doctors are concerned that the added stress of wondering if they will have a continuous supply of their drugs is impacting on patients’ health and their ability to fight the disease.
The Department of Health has promised an emergency summit within the next few weeks to look at the situation, but another concern is that it leaves the NHS vulnerable to compensation claims if patients start to suffer because of a shortage of essential drugs. In this instance, the NHS is caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea. They have no control over how the manufacturers distribute their products, as there is no preferential treatment by the manufacturers or inclination to supply the NHS first, particularly when selling their wares abroad can make greater profits. But this situation does not negate the NHS’s duty of care to its patients, and without sufficient drugs supplies, they could be held accountable if a patient’s health starts to suffer, leading to a potential increase in the number of clinical and medical negligence claims.
So why has this situation come about? Basically, it’s all down to economics. A weak pound has made it far more profitable for drugs manufacturers to sell their products abroad. In a time of tightening economic belts, the companies are naturally going to go to the markets where they can make the most profit. But this profit is being bought at the expense of UK patients, who fear for their health as a result.
The organisation representing the drugs manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies has welcomed the proposed meeting with the Department of Health. A spokesman for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Society said that the problem lies in the distribution process, not whether there are enough drugs to go around. However, it does seem that the Association has not yet fully grasped the potential cost to the NHS of what they describe as a ‘complex problem’. The cost to individual patients appears not to have been taken into consideration either, and the whole affair could be storing up major problems for both patients and the NHS in the future.
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