Responding to concerns over the impact of the NI Protocol on medical supplies, UUP Health spokesperson Alan Chambers MLA said:
“Headlines around the future availability of medicines and medical equipment due to the NI Protocol will of course be extremely worrying. The Department of Health under the leadership of Robin Swann is working to find solutions and ensure that speculation does not become a reality.
“The European Union must acknowledge the damage that was caused to the confidence of suppliers by triggering Article 16 over vaccine supplies. There is a big onus on them to rebuild confidence and be active players in ensuring solutions are found.
“We believe that we have already put forward a proposal that forms part of the solution. In our Protocol solutions papers published in February 2021, we suggested that the UK Government could legislate to place a duty on suppliers based in GB to provide their goods to all regions of the UK Internal Market. We think this could prevent a situation where producers of medicines and medical suppliers decide that following the period of derogations, they will only supply their goods to Great Britain.”