March 19, 2024

The Supply chain shortage madness in the UK – a personal perspective

So heads up this is going to be a tad different to what we normally do here at The Harvest and because of that we have a content warning for discussion of medical conditions and BREXIT (ominous music cue…)

In the last few years we have seen the NHS healthcare system go through a multitude of woes – spending cuts from the terrible austerity idea created by David (No calling THIS guy a Lord here) Cameron and George Osborne (before he decided to work for Evgeny Lebedev and create one of the worst ‘centrist dad’ podcasts ever made) and of course the ongoing pandemic that is COVID putting even more strain on it with the lack of PPE and many other vital pieces of equipment.

Now for those wondering where the ‘personal perspective’ comes from here it is – I have a fair few health conditions in my life: cerebral palsy, fibromyalgia and the one that is probably the most deadly out of the triple threat – Systemic Lupus.

Needless to say this means a fair few medications have been through me over the years in order to stop the immune system thinking my body is the virus while also attacking actual viruses by suppressing it down – ones that the average person won’t have heard of like Mycophenolate alongside ones you will have in the last few years (hello Hydroxychloroquine.)

In this story the drug in question is Mometasone, a nasal spray designed to stop nasal ulcers from causing nosebleeds and believe me out of EVERYTHING I’ve been through including the three cancer scares as lupus can be a mimicker too, my mind finds the nosebleeds the worst bit!

These medications aren’t exactly your average ones though so when anything affects the supply chain it becomes a scramble to find replacements or hope the hospital pharmacy has any stock in – something that happened last year with the hydroxychloroquine – and sadly the issues with the supply chain have got worse because to quote the British Medical Journal:

Community Pharmacy England also mention in their article ‘NHS Medicine shortages putting lives at risk’ (https://cpe.org.uk/our-news/nhs-medicines-shortages-putting-lives-at-risk) Covid and the ongoing Ukraine war were also factors, a survey by the CPE also noted how 92% of pharmacies were dealing with this as a DAILY PROBLEM.

Cue three weeks ago as I was told when getting my monthly prescription delivery that my regular Mometasone spray was out of stock due to supply issues – what followed was essentially a back and forth between the doctors and chemist:

Chemist got sent down a prescription for a replacement – no stock in.

Chemist then recommends Fluticasone but they’ve got none in so try another chemist in the area.

Contacted the other chemist in the area – no luck there.

Doctors then send down a prescription for Beclometasone on the 18th March – I then ring the chemist who fingers crossed hop a supply comes in that very night.

Finally on the 19th March – success after multiple attempts.

Ridiculous I think you’ll agree – but the chemist and doctors can’t be held to blame here, sadly it’s factors that are unique to us – Brexit and the gamble of the Britannia Unhinged I mean Unchained lot in Truss, Kwarteng et al during her calamitous reign as PM tanking an already struggling economy making it more difficult and expensive for the NHS plus a cap forced upon them in 2019 to make sure spending on branded meds didn’t go higher than 2% in a single year!

With a supply chain that is broken and taking more strain every passing month on top of a system it’s time to see how a Labour government would try and resolve the issue.

Problem is all we seem to hear from Wes Streeting is his plan to ‘reform’ the NHS which usually means more outsourcing and privatisation on the quiet – so here’s my question: What will a Labour government do to stop this supply chain issue – change the cap forced upon the NHS possibly? – or face risk of it getting even worse?