Leaked Gov’t paper reveals medicines and life saving drug shortages in Britain now ‘unprecedented’

On the 25th September, TruePublica published a piece entitled – “The list of Medicines affected by no-deal Brexit.’ It was read over 40,000 on that day and went on to be a No1 read story and was shared thousands of times across social media. It was, quite rightly, a big story. It was the leak of operation yellowhammer that led TruePublica to search for that list of shortages because we thought it was a very important piece of information to give our readers.

Not so at the BBC. They have published a story (0100hrs/19/11/19) immersed in propaganda and then buried so as to be not news at all. It is crucial information of an unprecedented shortage of life-saving drugs that has suddenly occurred in Britain just two weeks after the October 31st warnings in Operation Yellowhammer.

Go to the BBC website and – “Britain’s ‘unprecedented’ drug shortage” is not on the homepage. It is filed under their ‘Health’ section. Go to that category and it is nowhere to be seen as it is then filed somewhere else. as to have no prominence at all.

The story recites the experiences of two people with illnesses that require life-saving or critical drugs. And, of course, it is sad to read about their plight but halfway down their article is this sentence – “GPs, pharmacists and doctors working in acute care, have all told us that the current shortage of prescribed medicines and treatments is “unprecedented”.”

 

“GPs, pharmacists and doctors working in acute care, have all told us that the current shortage of prescribed medicines and treatments is “unprecedented”

 

We know that the government has taken some action to prevent drug shortages such as banning British pharmaceutical manufacturers from exporting certain drugs to ensure there are less shortages but there are thousands of drugs Britain is dependent upon that are manufactured outside of the UK.

The BBC article also makes mention of people now looking for suppliers outside of the UK in the hope of securing their supplies. However, shortages being reported are now becoming serious.

Go further down this article and this little gem is written – the BBC:

 

“has seen a leaked 24-page document circulated to doctors last week from the medicine supply team at the Department of Health and Social Care. It reveals the NHS is running short of dozens of life-saving medicines – including treatments for cancer, heart conditions, Parkinson’s Disease and mental health problems.”

 

The BBC reports that a spokesperson for the Dept of Health and Social Care said the department “works closely with partners and industry to help prevent shortages and resolve any issues as soon as possible.”

Unbelievably, the article then rambles on about ‘globalisation’ and ‘packaging’ as the cause for supply chain issues and cites problems in other countries. Of course, there will be a few problems in other countries if you search for them, there always will be but the NHS is facing an ‘unprecedented’ supply problem of a range of life-saving drugs across a national health service – not a packaging problem in a factory in Estonia.

This story mentions nothing at all about the real problems. About deliberate stock-piling by pharmaceutical companies and their middlemen operations, about Brexit being seen as a price-gouging opportunity. It is Brexit that is causing these opportunities along with other technical issues in the supply chain. But if they are ‘unprecedented’ in the history of the NHS – then what the NHS mean is, it has never happened like this before.

TruePublica has written and complained to the BBC about this story, its prominence, accuracy and impartiality.

 

BBC Story: Britain’s Unprecedented Drug Shortage

 

Helpful information:

Don’t Take These Dangerous Drugs: How to Avoid Counterfeit Drugs Online

List of medicine shortages in the UK

 

 

 

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