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 help ensure that adequate stocks of diabetic (a) equipment and (b) medicine remain available in pharmacies across the UK in the context of the shortage of HGV drivers.

The Department continues to engage closely with the sector to assess the impact of logistics and supply disruptions on the continued supply of medical products, including the impact of HGV driver shortages. Whilst we were made aware of some localised concerns, there have not been any significant impacts on medical supply chains that have impacted on patients.

The Department has contingency plans in place to help ensure continuity of supply of medical products, including the following;

• standing up the National Supply Disruption Response to 24 hours, seven days a week to provide a single point of contact for suppliers and providers seeking urgent assistance with a critical supply disruption anywhere in the United Kingdom;
• mobilising our in-house expert logistics service, the international Express Freight Service, to provide end to end, emergency, international freight solutions for any medical product across the world in the event of acute disruption.

These plans, alongside other mitigations, enable us to help ensure continued supply during periods of national disruption, including for diabetic equipment and medicine in pharmacies. Pharmacists should continue to place orders in the normal way. If pharmacists have any concerns regarding supply, they should continue to report them via the normal route.