Exporting pharmacists referred to MHRA

It's all about greed. Contractors want to make money in a free market economy, but then want to hide behind contract limitation and be immune to new competition.

Greedy & selfish.

It is time all services were priced relative to locum rates. If locum rates decrease, then payments decrease. This reduces the incentive to decrease locum rates.

Since locum rates are decreasing the DoH should not increase any revenue as costs have gone down!

dont complain about locum rates, look around where your living there must be a multiple doing 7000+ items per month, what stopping you setting upa a 100Hrs with 2 of your locum mates and flatten that old dinasaur, go for it what you got to loose, remember Del Boy, "those who dare, WIN!!"

When exchange rates were favourable and we we were importing medicines there was
no question of referring anyone to the MHRA.
I don't think it's a question of greed.
If you are in business and you don't want to make more money then you shouldn't be in
buisness in the first place.
Employees fail to realise that costs of running any business, not just Pharmacy go up and up. There is no downward trend in that..
Classic examples include rent, rates, wages and utilities not to mention the ever increasing costs of "red tape".
Surely, the logical thing to do would be for the manufacturers instead of imposing artificial, nonsensical quotas to increase capacity.
They would sell more of their products, employ extra staff, more employmet, more income for the Goverment in Tax, Ni Contributions etc. Great for the economy all round.

Also, I assume the products being exported are those for which their is a genuine end user demand and at the end of the line a patient somewhere is going to benefit.

Let's face it, if it was any other commodity wouldn't the Goverment be doing all it can to help exports because that would have a positive impact on our Trade Balance.

As for locum rates, I don't know why there is all this outcry .
If you're being offered £20 per hour and someone else is offering more, just go and work there. It's not as if you have a gun at your head and are being forced to work for £20 or £22 or whatever the case may be.

We live in a world full of tremendous opportunities and it's always the ones who don't want to get of their backsides and make a life for themselves who moan and groan about the ones who are enterprising, hard working and want to get ahead.

There really is no shortages of these medicines. It is the Manufacturers who have decided to impose a quota and anything that goes beyond this quota, is classed as shortages. The same manufacturing sites are producing drugs for EU Market. We are both professionals and traders. We trade in legtimate drugs, whether it be by retail or under proper licences, wholesale, but if we are in business which is legal, then there should be no impediments in the way of carrying on this trade. It is for the Government who grants the licences to these manufacturers to ensure that they too comply with the law and make products available freely, or else loose their exclusive licences.

I believe many of the Pharmacists engaging in this trade would much rathar be practicing professionally in seeing to their patients and delivering enhanced services. However, due to the poor and falling remuneration received, lack of proper commissioning of Advanced and Enhanced services funded realistically, and total incompetence of the PSNC to secure level of payments that reflects our actual costs in runnung a business, has led many contractors to indulge in this trade merely to make ends meet. A number of them have expensive and large Loans to repay. Where is the money to come from, if we keep getting cuts in reimpursement prices(Cat M) and funding being diverted from core services to other services which fail to materialise, or if they do, are so complicated that not many are willing to take part (NMS).

C&D, your SOS campaign makes me laugh, you have been carrying ads in the back of your mag advertising companies that will set you up as a wholesale dealer, so less of the hysteria please.
In the EU this trading is lawful. Lilly can bleat all they like. The way they managed the supply chain for zyprexa was awful, I'm glad it is off patent. Bet they dish it out like smarties now.
I didn't see anyone wailing in the 1990s about the poor Greeks and Spanish having no meds when we were awash with imports from them.
If the previous government hadn't cut pharmacy funding to the bone with Category M no one would be doing exporting. Sometimes it is either that or bankruptcy!

I would like to shake Bindu Bhatt by the hand. He has nailed the issue as far as I can see.

Every time you squeeze a business, the business will respond by trying to find new methods of remuneration. If the new contract with it's lower payments, Cat M cutbacks, CIP failure etc hadn't reduced profitability then the number of pharmacies involved in exporting would have remained small. With all the cutbacks the specials were an easy way to make money back. This has now stopped thus placing more pressure on smaller pharmacies. Of course if you are a big group with your own specials manufacturer then this won't have affected you as much.

Now that exporting has become an avenue of revenue for pharmacies it will be hard to stop this.

Option 1) The govt. could try legislation to stop this but as others have said they had no problems with importing and in fact now expect us to use PI to some degree.
Option 2) The govt. could try correcting the sterling rate but with the rest of euroland doing its utmost to bankrupt the currency I don't think they will have much success.
Option 3) As someone has mentioned the govt could declare that there is a shortage and authorise some generic companies to help meet the demand as the current manufacturers are unable or unwilling to do this.
Option 4) The govt could also start paying us for the work we do. Pay us more for extra work it wants us to do rather than its method of cutting payment and allowing us to recoup our losses by doing more.

I would love to see option 4 with option 3 thrown in. The manufacturers are deliberately withholding stock from people. I find this sickening especially when I can't get alcon eyedrops from my wholesaler but the manufacturer will supply me direct but only in packs of 10. For some of these drops that would amount to a 3 month supply.
Option 2 is impossible as it relies on too many external influences.

That leaves option 1. I can see the govt having no qualms about making this illegal/ removing wholesaling ability from pharmacies. This will be a problem for local surgeries here as I sell medication for their minor ops. I am apolitical, but as we have a tory govt I can see them backing big business first. I would like to know what happened in Greece and other European countries where PI's have traditionally been sourced. Did manufacturers not have problems there?

I agree there are ethical issues wrt supply of medicines but we are also obliged by our loyal customers and our staff to ensure the business survives. I don't think that most of the pharmacists involved in this want to be involved, but rather they need to be. We all want to make sure our patients/ customers get their meds. We all want to have a job.

Brilliant comments here. Thank God Pharmacists are now waking up at last to know they are constantly being cheated by the system.
Does it require plenty brains to know the solution to shortage is simply for manufacturer to increase output and manufacture more products??????? Is it not a good thing that UK pharmacuetical products are needed worldwide. Its either the poeple crying shortage are incredibly senceless about international trade or they are very good at expertly telling us lies. The way i see it, the mafia of big wholesaler and manufacturers will like to cry foul hard enough so that the government can scrap wholesaler license from the small Pharmacies and independents. Pharmacists can't you see these big shots want to run the state like a pseudocommunist state? They will not succeed! Pharmacists are top class professionals worldwide and in most countries in this world, civilised and third world, the role of Pharmacist involves, manufacturing, trading i.e importing and exporting drugs alongside their clinical roles. Why is this a problem in the UK. The answer is simple! if i may scream out!!!! There is no problem but an artificial one created by the those in power and big companies in a bid to enslave us all. It will not work because Pharmacist nationnwide will begin to rise up to this oppressions and hidden agenda of those who dislike freedom for the common man. Manufacture more drugs, hire more people, setup more plants. That is what the economy needs and stop this madness of deceit. I wish my dearly beloved profession recovery from underfunding this 2012.

Brilliant news! And so they should be. These pharmacies are leeching stock that should be used for UK patients.

But on the flip-side, there needs to be more done to reimburse pharmacists for the work they do so they don't turn to exporting to survive. The claw-back makes it incredibly hard for pharmacies to make any money from UK scripts so wonder some have to export to make ends meet.