The International Express Freight Service (IEFS) – the contract for which has been awarded to Kuehne+Nagel International – is a “contingency measure” that will ensure that medicines at risk of shortage can reach the UK “within days”, the DH said in a statement earlier this week (November 2).

In the event where a supplier’s own logistical arrangements are disrupted, the government will resort to IEFS to “support supply chain resilience in the UK and mitigate potential shortages”, it said.

Small parcels will be collected and delivered within 24 to 48 hours, while the delivery time for pallets and shipments will be up to four working days, the DH said. Meanwhile, “specialised products with a controlled or regulated handling requirement [will be] fast-tracked within 24 hours”, the DH added.

Supply chain “unpredictable”

Health minister Edward Argar said the DH’s priority is “to help ensure NHS patients can always access the treatments they need without delay”.

“Global supply chains are unpredictable, and our new IEFS will rapidly transport medical products in shortage to the UK within days,” he added.

Following the fuel shortage that affected the UK earlier this year, wholesaler Phoenix told C+D in September that the UK’s fuel situation and “chronic” labour shortages had left the medicines supply chain in a “very fragile state”.

However, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) told C+D at the time that there were “no disruptions or delays to the supply of medicines”.