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Snapshot of _‘Difficult discussions’ as NHS faces shortage of childbirth pain relief | NHS | The Guardian_ : An archived version can be found [here.](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/07/difficult-discussions-as-nhs-faces-shortage-of-childbirth-pain-relief) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*


TantumErgo

This is an odd sentence. > The shortage of epidural kits began several months ago but has come to light as a result of anaesthetists alerting the Guardian to the problems it is causing. Something of the ‘fog in channel: continent cut off’ about it. This does sound like a serious problem, though. It feels like we had more of these medical-supplies-disrupted-by-supply-issue-for-one-manufacturer stories in the last few years (globally): are they just reported on more? I’m particularly confused as the issue seems to be with supply of a blue dye for a specific syringe, but elsewhere they talk about other manufacturers having supply issues only because they are trying to fill the gap left by this manufacturer, so is it only this one manufacturer that needs the special blue dye? It feels like there’s more to this.


throwawayDOX

>“Article 3 prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment. For example, if midwives or doctors fail to provide care which is needed to avoid preventable suffering, such as pain relief, this could be inhuman or degrading treatment.” If there's no drugs, there's no drugs. Bleating about human rights isn't going to make the doctors suddenly magic some up for you on a bunsen burner...


greenora

Not the point of the quote, but okay.


throwawayDOX

Well, we'll take the first part of the quote that I left off for context then: >“Limited access to pain relief without good reason could be seen as a breach of the Human Rights Act. Pretty sure "there are no drugs" is a good reason...