Brexit cuts supply of epilepsy drug for boy
Mother fears son could die as Brexit stops medical cannabis supplyGovernment gives two weeks notice that access to epilepsy treatment for nine-year-old Alfie Dingley will end....Hannah Deacon (Alfie's mother) was given just two weeks notice by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that due to the end of the transition period “prescriptions issued in the UK can no longer be lawfully dispensed in an EU member state”.....“They [the DHSC] said they understand our concern but they can’t do anything. Well let me tell them, it is not concerning, it is terrifying.”.....She says she wasn’t even told directly by the DHSC that she would no longer get the drug, something she describes as “galling”.Instead the letter of 17 December went to pharmacy suppliers around the country who were told to advise on “alternative” prescriptions which would be “clinically appropriate to switch patients on to”.....She went on to research treatments for epilepsy and found evidence of cannabis being used in 1841 leading her to developments in the Netherlands by a specialist pharmacist Arwin Ramcharan at Transvaal Apotheek.She moved to the Netherlands in September 2017 and Alfie began the treatment which saw his seizures stop but had to return five months later after money ran out, prompting her battle to get it legalised.....Ramcharan said: “For me, it is really sad. We are not allowed to send this medicines whatsoever to the UK after Brexit. It is now a battle between the UK government and the Dutch government.”Deacon said her boy had “a horrendous quality of life, no quality of life” when he was ill, he is now able to attend to school.“I fought for two and a half years to keep my son well and to get him help on the NHS and it’s a real kick in the teeth, to be honest, for them to just, you know, not do anything to help us,” she said.“For the prime minister to ignore me, and all the other families, is an utter disgrace,” she said......https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/05/mother-fears-son-could-die-as-brexit-stops-medical-cannabis-medicine-supplyPersonal note: I wonder how many other medicines prescribed normally until the end of the transition period, will now not be available. I am thinking about people requiring insulin, cancer treatment among others... It is too frightening for words. Very well done Brexit and the dreadful deal that ignores financial services and services in general, blocks education programmes and now restricts availability of medicines. No words..
Ivonne Holliday ● 2135d26 Comments ● 2135d