Members of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP)
have raised increasing concerns about the availability of medicines post-Brexit
in European Union (EU) countries and the United Kingdom (UK), in particular in
a no-deal situation. These concerns are linked to a recent publication of the
Association which underlined that medicines shortages are currently a common
problem in over 90% of hospitals all across Europe.
Even though EAHP’s 2018 Medicines Shortages Survey did not
directly touch on the subject of Brexit a number of participants, especially
those working in Ireland and the UK, highlighted that Brexit will worsen the
situation. In addition to the increase in medicines shortages, EAHP
fears that the robustness of the EU-wide capacity to manage the shortages
problem will be significantly affected due to the fact that difficulties could
arise when trying to access packs from the UK market.
Free movement of hospital pharmacists is another concern of EAHP.
Efforts by the European Commission to remove mobility barriers were intensified
since the financial and economic crisis, with a leading action being the
revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive. However, hospital
pharmacists are still not benefitting from the rules and measures adopted by
the EU to foster labour mobility. Labour mobility for the hospital pharmacy
profession largely depends on the flexibility of national
authorities. Ireland and the UK have a high rate of inter country registrations
of pharmacists due to the similarities of educational
systems and language. Brexit poses a threat to this practice and
could in the case of the UK and Ireland lead to a significant limitation of
cross-border cooperation between these countries.
The annual congress of the EAHP, taking place in
Barcelona from 27th to 29th March 2019 will address many of these issues. On 28th March – a day prior to the UK’s exit from the EU –
hospital pharmacists will have the opportunity to attend the Synergy Satellite
event “Facing Brexit and FMD - Is Europe ready for the double “storm”?”. This
session will describe and discuss how Brexit and medicines shortages can affect
accessibility and availability of drugs in Europe and provide information on
procedures to prevent the possible negative effects of access to medicines.
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