agreed though was that of questions which need 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?
Despite the post-Brexit resignations, elections and general mayhem, one person for whom it’s very much business as usual is Dr Rose Marie Parr, who tells SP that the Brexit vote is making no difference to her daily routine at this stage.
The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, who has been in post for just over a year now, is firmly focussed on the way forward for Scottish pharmacy, Brexit or no Brexit.
‘As with most people, I firmly believe that it is too early to predict what is going to happen in practical terms,’ Dr Parr told SP. ‘As far as I’m concerned it’s ‘business as usual’.
The Scottish situation has been exacerbated by the fact that, coming so soon after Scotland’s independence referendum, the Scottish people also voted by 62 per cent to 38 per cent to remain within the EU, leading the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to repeatedly suggest that Scotland may remain within the EU, an assertion which only this week was shot down by the UK’s Attorney General, who said that Scotland did not have a ‘veto’ over Brexit and that the whole UK would be leaving the EU.
Phew!
This atmosphere of uncertainty acted as a backdrop to the conversations I’ve been having with pharmacists and pharmacy bodies over the last few, to the 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 were they afraid to raise their heads above the parapet in terms of defining what might happen in the
short or long terms. No, 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
‘I do realise, of course, that there will be implications for the regulation of medicines and medical devices in the UK as a whole. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will have to work closely with the UK’s Medicines
GEORGE ROMANES, DUNS PHARMACY
It’s too early to tell what will happen yet, but my worries concern the tools of the trade for refits and refurbishment. Many shop fittings come from Germany and Italy, and I worry about what will happen if tariffs apply that will put the cost of re-fits up at a time when margins are shrinking.
Robots are a European product from Germany too and these could go up if we do not have a positive negotiation with our European friends. We are just catching on to robotics so this might be a show stopper, but hopefully not.
The effect of Brexit on parallel imports is more interesting. Many suppliers fear that this part of the market may well shrink down over time and lead to reduced use of these products. As ever, it will take time for the market to recover and pharmacists will lose margin no doubt. Generic suppliers will continue to supply countries where prices are not so tightly controlled as the UK so there will be more shortages around the year end too.
There will still be many pharmacists looking to come across from the EU before we Brexit and they might well not get to stay long term either. A lot of uncertainty then, but the patients will still needs the care and the medicines so it’s business as usual despite all these issues!
JOHN MURPHY, DIRECTOR, THE
PHARMACISTS’ DEFENCE ASSOCIATION
Our efforts now will be to preserve and protect our members’ rights that may be affected by the Brexit vote. This will focus on rights traditionally ensconced in the British law on employment matters and specifically British law which have been underpinned by European legislation and the European convention on Human Rights.
JONATHAN BURTON, RIGHT MEDICINE PHARMACY
I wasn’t particularly enamoured with any aspect of the Brexit campaign, but I am interested in what will happen to the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), which aims to prevent the entry of falsified medicines into the pharmaceutical supply chain. I firmly believe there will have to be some sort of impact if we exit, and, from what I can gather, this issue is worrying a lot of community pharmacists.
For a start, there will be operational problems if we have to do more scanning ourselves. Scanning will, I know, have to happen at some point and that’s good from a patient safety point of view if the scanning also enables prescription vs product checking, I support that as it will doubtless minimise dispensing errors. But, it means more work for us down the line, not to mention potential financial implications, if the cost has to be shouldered by the pharmacy contractors.
Is FMD something that the UK will have to implement on its own? If we do have to, do we have the facility to ensure that scanning is effective on the patient safety level as well as on the anti-counterfeit level? This issue is, to my mind, up in the air and definitely needs clarity. I know that RPS is doing a lot of work in this area at the moment – and I think that we’re still duty bound to comply, but I can’t see how this can be implemented once we’re out of Europe.
SCOTTISH PHARMACIST - 9
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