#EAPM: Mayday! Health care is for the many, not the few, Theresa

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has arguably scored the biggest own goal of the season given the result of this week’s election,

Going to the nation via a snap poll on the back of a ‘strong and stable leadership’ mantra, with the plan of giving herself a hefty mandate to negotiate a ‘hard Brexit’, May put the ball in her own net by reducing her majority and having to team up with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party - hardly the nation’s favourite outfit.

With the DUP’s ten seats, and much good will and bartering, she might just pull it off. Or not.

‘Strong and stable’? ‘Weak and wobbly’ is closer.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party recorded an incredible result given the circumstances, and the pro-Remain Tories may now start to make their voices heard - although with Brexit negotiations set to begin on 19 June, they will probably be whipped into remaining quiet.

Such is the world of politics. May has a mandate (her party won) but not the one she wanted (less seats equalling less backing for that hard Brexit).

Of course, despite all the chaos, the upcoming negotiations with the EU are at the forefront of business moving forward. But, lest we forget, health care and in particular the funding of the NHS was at the heart of the Brexit campaign.

The blatant lie on the side of the ‘Leave’ battle-bus about an extra £350 million-per-week being ploughed into the health service was uncovered and made clear to everyone soon after the referendum, and perhaps Mrs May has paid for that to some degree.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter who is in power or in which country. The EU has an ageing population, a too-low birth rate, a pension cliff, and every single one of the EU’s current 28 member states has a crisis in their health-care systems. Not enough cash, over-worked staff, shortages of beds, shortages of drugs… The list goes on.

It simply cannot be allowed to continue. Politicians can bicker amongst themselves, call each other nasty names and behave like boxers in a pre-bout press conference… National newspapers can pick sides and long-time friends can fall out on social media. None of this alters the fact that the burden on health-care systems all across Europe is unsustainable.

This is not a political issue.

Brexit, Frexit, Grexit, let’s forget-xit. People are living longer and suffering from co-morbidities as never seen before and the problem is not being dealt with adequately at either EU or member state level.

Across the EU, health is a national competence, although EU legislation on matters affecting health, such as rules on IVDs, data protection, clinical trials and cross-border health care have all been designed to apply across the 28 member states.

So how will Brexit (whoever negotiates it - DUP input, anyone?) affect the UK and its supra-national dealings with other health bodies across Europe? (Lest we forget, Britain will lose the influential European Medicines Agency in due course.)

As an example, legislatively speaking, the EU’s Clinical Trials Regulation aims to turn current outmoded trial models into those fit-for-purpose in a health environment that has seen the rapid emergence of personalised medicine.

It introduces an EU-wide data base and much greater collaboration and harmony - all for the benefit of research and, thus, eventually patients. It also reduces (or seeks to reduce) red tape and simplify the ‘bench to bedside’ process in many cases of innovative drugs and treatments, usually when the medical product in question carries less risk.

If the UK steps back from the legislation, post-Brexit, it will face extra administration problems when holding trials in EU countries. This is inevitable.

Are you listening, Theresa?

And as far as good manufacturing practice is concerned, the UK adheres to EU directives and is of a standard that would allow it to export and import quality-assured medicinal products within the European Economic Area. This would only apply, though, so long as UK standards remain equivalent to those within the EU.

Post-Brexit, the UK will have access to smaller data sets than those in the Union. Not only that, but the EU may lose data from the UK. This effectively means less collaboration and sharing of information. This scenario promises to affect patients, be less efficient and more expensive.

It could turn into an unmitigated disaster, but at this stage we don’t know. What we do know is that Theresa May intends to march on with negotiations. Whether she can really justify heading for a ‘hard Brexit’ is up in the air, now that ‘the people have spoken’ once again, but appear to have changed their minds.

There are many unknowables at this stage. The jury is still out on cross-border health care and care for British expats living in EU countries, as well as EU nationals living in Britain.

At the end of the day, the Brussels-based European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) believes that the population of the UK will be much-better served by the standardized and robust health regulations, best practices, collaboration and cooperation that occur in Europe.

It remains to be seen what, if anything, can be salvaged from the wreckage-after-the-wreckage, although EAPM will continue to engage with personalised medicine stakeholders in the UK regardless.

Bottom line, Theresa May will be well-advised to remember that health care has to be ‘for the many, not the few’ as, ironically, Labour put it.

The game is afoot. No more own goals, please, prime minister.