Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail)
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Many of my points have been touched upon, but I welcome what Mr. Hennessy said earlier about the organ transplant programme at Great Ormond Street, and also the collaboration between the ambulance services in case of major incidences and emergencies. My colleague, Senator Burke, mentioned young health professionals going to the UK to gain experience. That is invaluable; I spent some time in south Wales and completed my GP scheme there. Young health professionals gain invaluable experience by working in a different jurisdiction. This is probably an issue for postgraduate organisations, but if a young doctor completed his or her GP scheme in the UK, gained qualification and became a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, ICGP, perhaps that could be reciprocated with a membership of the Irish College of General Practitioners on returning to Ireland. We hope they will return to Ireland to address some of the shortages we have here.

We had a long discussion about drugs, and I recognise the collaboration between the Department, the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, and the HSE. I also acknowledge the challenges for refrigerated products and products with short shelf lives. The vaccines were mentioned; are we happy that two months supply is enough? I presume the witnesses were discussing childhood vaccinations. Are travel vaccinations also covered under that grouping? There is also a question about cancer drugs, and immunotherapy and biological agents. Mr. Breslin mentioned critical medicines, but biological agents fall under that critical medicines banner. Often with rheumatological diseases, for example rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, consultants will go straight in with a biological agent to get a patient's symptoms under control quickly. Previously they might have used a disease modifying agent and built up to using a biological agent. It is nowadays often a first-line treatment. The demand for that product is obviously higher. They are used in such a variety of cases, including gastrointestinal cases or joint cases. Are the witnesses quite happy that we have enough of those types of drugs available? I agree that we have good links with multinational companies and that there are excellent wholesalers in the country. The witnesses correctly said that medicine shortages are an ongoing issue, with or without Brexit, but as a GP on the ground I am beginning to see patients requesting extra drugs because people are seeing the charade and disorganisation in the British Parliament and combining it with the 29 March deadline looming. GPs are once again acting as gatekeepers in a role they did not think they would have. We are trying to reassure people, but would the witnesses consider redoubling the efforts to get the message out to the public on the ground in the form of a media awareness campaign, with radio and TV, for example? People are asking for more inhalers and more blood pressure drugs. People who are using these biological agents are concerned that the consultants will not be sending the high-tech scripts down to their local pharmacy in order that the local pharmacy would dispense them.

As professionals we can be reassured by the comments made here today. However, there is a bit of a disconnect on the ground. People are obviously worried about their conditions, and I believe a public awareness campaign would really help to benefit that cohort of patients.