Cancer treatment supplies warning for no deal Brexit

In a letter to the Prime Minister, senior doctors have called for ‘urgent clarification’ over plans to supply cancer treatments in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Seen by BBC Newsnight, the letter claims that a ‘dry run’ of emergency deliveries earlier this year revealed problems in the system.

Although the Department of Health stresses that action is being taken to safeguard supplies, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson maintains that a no-deal Brexit is not his aim, the letter's authors question whether medical radioisotopes will reach hospitals in time if there are delays at the border.

Approximately one million patients in the UK currently receive medical radioisotopes for diagnosis or therapy each year. Aside from one type of radioisotopes produced in the UK, all other radioactive medical materials are imported - with the Royal College of Radiologists saying the ‘vast majority’ are from the EU.

Radioisotopes are radioactive atoms that can be used against cancer and are a key component of some types of scan. Their supply chains operate on tight schedules, as the nuclear materials quickly decay and become unusable. As such, stockpiling supplies in advance of a potential no deal, as planned for some other medicines, becomes impossible.

The Royal College of Radiologists, the British Nuclear Medicine Society and the UK Radiopharmacy Group report being ‘very encouraged that radioisotopes are being specifically considered’ in no-deal planning, but remain ‘apprehensive about supplier readiness’.