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REFERENDUM


BREXIT: WHERE NOW FOR PHARMACY?


PROOF, IF ANY MORE WAS NEEDED, ABOUT THE LEVEL OF CONCERN, ANXIETY AND CONFUSION THAT THE BREXIT RESULT HAS CREATED, WAS PROVIDED BY EVENTS WHICH OCCURRED EVEN DURING THE WRITING OF THIS FEATURE.


days (post-Brexit), and forecast that consumer confidence would drop to almost what it was pre-2008.


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Then, one day later, the Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, announced that he had laid the ground for interest rate cuts following the vote, as, he said, the UK economy was already showing signs of strain.


Even as Carney was speaking, however, the pound tumbled and shares soared, leaving Carney commenting that the 'backdrop of uncertainty' was taking its toll.


This same 'backdrop of uncertainty' prevailed throughout my


conversations with pharmacists and pharmacy bodies over the period of a few days. In fact, it reached a point where I had to look in Roget's Thesaurus for synonyms for 'uncertainty', such was the hyperbolic use of the word.


It's not that anyone meant to be vague. Nor where they afraid to raise their heads above the parapet in terms of defining what might happen in the short or long terms. It was more the fact that no one has ever seen this parapet before and is fully cognisant of the fact that we're effectively heading into no man's land.


One area in which everyone was 12 - PHARMACY IN FOCUS


ast week, a YouGov/CEBR report showed that the index had fallen seven points in four


agreed was that of questions which needed answered:


* Since much of UK pharmacy law is governed by EU directives, will new UK-specific laws have to be drawn up?


* What will happen to the 'administrative headache', otherwise known as the falsified medicines directive, which is due to come into force in 2019? Has leaving Europe put an end to this, or will it be 'pushed through'?


* Will a new UK medicine safety body have to be created due to the inevitable departure of the European Medicines Agency from London?


* In NI-centric terms, how will the movement of locums from North to South be affected?


Through our research, we came to realise very quickly that, while everyone is aware of the uncertainties, doubts and concerns that exist about the future for the UK in general, and pharmacy in particular, no one could proffer definite answers to these questions. We did, however, speak to three pharmacists with very definite - and more personalised - concerns in specific areas.


As President of the Commonwealth Pharmacists' Association (CPA), Raymond Anderson from Anderson Pharmacy in Portadown


is in the slightly unique position of having a perspective on UK pharmacy that's already based on extrinsic factors.


'The 'Leave' campaign spent much of their time talking about immigration being stopped,' said Raymond, 'which obviously attracted many votes - but they also talked about bringing in the 'brightest and best' and I'm very concerned about this, since it's an issue that has already been taken up by the CPA, ie, the idea that wealthier Commonwealth countries, such as the UK, are taking the talent away from less-developed Commonwealth countries.


'I believe that we need to be very careful in this respect. These lesser developed Commonwealth countries are investing in their students and training them to the highest standards. They are then being enticed to the UK, leaving their own countries devoid of highly-skilled healthcare professionals. The UK needs to train its own pharmacists and, if need be, upskill its own people to fill these posts, not bring them in from other Commonwealth countries and elsewhere.


'From an overall point of view, I'm concerned that, to put it mildly, the UK is at the moment in a state of flux. There is no Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition is facing a leadership battle and no-one knows what they're negotiating for. It's very worrying.'


In Camlough Pharmacy in County Down, pharmacist Seamus Strain's worries are more domestic.


'My major concerns are linked to the exchange rate,' Seamus told PiF, 'in so much as the Euro has strengthened against the pound, so it may affect the price of parallel


imports. I'm worried that Brexit will affect consumer confidence and bring it back to what it was pre- 2008. In fact, my fears were actually reinforced last week by the news that the YouGov/Centre for Economic Consumer Confidence (CEBR) Index slumped by seven points in the four days following the Brexit poll to match a level not seen since May 2013.


'In my opinion, it was complete madness for the Leave campaign to call this referendum when the UK had just come through a recession and things were only beginning to look a bit brighter. When the 2007/08 post- recession fall occurred, my front of shop sales dropped by 30 per cent. This happened at the same time as the NHS cutbacks and we really were struggling, but have been making a modest recovery since then. Now, this referendum has definitely put us back into uncertainty. We didn't need this now - or at any time for that matter!'


Meanwhile, up in Derry/Londonderry, Killian Johnston from H Sweeney Chemist is particularly worried about the future of socially- deprived areas such as his own, which rely very much on EU funding.


'I really believe that the Brexit referendum is a complete disaster for this part of the world. I work a lot with community and 3rd sector groups, which are very much funded by the EU. Look at the Peace Bridge, for example, which was built with EU funding. As a result, a lot of running


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