Following the publication of a letter from the House of Lords Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Northern Ireland to the Department of Health regarding their investigation into the provision of medicines to Northern Ireland, Alan Chambers MLA, Ulster Unionist Health spokesperson, said:

“The letter from the House of Lords Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the Department of Health should act as a wake-up call to those diplomats and politicians who think that the issue of the provision of medicines to Northern Ireland has been solved.

“If anything, the evidence given to the Committee, emphasises the very real difficulties that remain. The EU proposals don`t go anywhere near far enough. The best solution is for medicines to be removed from the Protocol completely. There is no good or just reason for medicines being supplied to our Health Service in Northern Ireland from Great Britain to be included in the Protocol.

“The Sub-Committee correspondence states very clearly that ‘there were no obvious benefits of the Protocol from the point of view of medicines provision to Northern Ireland.’

“We need action now, we need pragmatism from the EU to recognise that medicines being sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are of absolutely no threat to the integrity of the EU Single Market.

“I would appeal to them to do the right thing and do it soon or we could potentially still be looking at hundreds of medicines being unavailable in Northern Ireland because of the Protocol. Time is rapidly running out and if action isn`t taken by the beginning of December Northern Ireland could be facing a cliff edge in the New Year with hundreds of medicines becoming unavailable. That should be a focus to ensure negotiations deliver the right solution.”