BREXIT WIN
Brexit helped improve medicine supplies ahead of Covid pandemic, says Matt Hancock
LEAVING the EU helped improve medicine supplies ahead of the pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.
He claimed that no-deal planning had a major effect on stockpile levels at the height of the crisis.
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The ex-Health Secretary told the Covid-19 inquiry yesterday that medicines were within hours of running out for intensive care but supply chains were better prepared in 2019.
He said: “The work done for a no-deal Brexit on supply chains for medicines was the difference between running out of medicines in the peak of the pandemic and not running out.”
He claimed that when Covid broke out, officials knew “more about the pharmaceutical supply chain in the UK than at any time in history”.
During his testimony, he said he was “profoundly sorry” for every death caused by the pandemic.
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He admitted some officials were moved from pandemic planning in the build-up to Covid.
And the former minister conceded the country’s overall strategy in coping with a pandemic was “woefully inadequate”, as the focus was on making sure we had enough body bags and where to bury the dead.
Planners had failed to set up contact tracing and testing to stop the spread of the disease.
He said: “Central to pandemic planning needs to be: How do you stop the disaster from happening in the first place? How do you suppress the virus?”
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