Radiotherapy
(asked on 2nd September 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the availability of ongoing radiotherapy treatment in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
As part of a responsible Government, the Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for European Union exit. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the supply of medicines and medical products remains uninterrupted when we leave EU on 31 October.
The Department, in consultation with the devolved administrations, has been working with trade bodies, product suppliers, and the health and care system in England to make detailed plans that should ensure continuation of the supply of medical products, including those for use in radiotherapy, to the whole of the United Kingdom and its Crown Dependencies.
As with our plans leading up to 29 March, for those medicines that cannot be stockpiled because, for example, they have short shelf-lives, such as medical radioisotopes for use in radiotherapy, we have asked suppliers to make alternative arrangements, using airfreight, which some suppliers are already doing now. We have offered support to companies to arrange this.
On 26 June, we wrote to suppliers of medicines to the UK from or via the EU or European Economic Area setting out our continuing multi-layered approach to support continuity of supply of medicines and medical products from 31 October.
Further details can be found at the following link: