Leaving the European Union with no deal will be disastrous for Wales and the UK. We've heard others this afternoon telling us about the extreme challenges facing us if we fail to prevent a 'no deal' Brexit. Now, I hear 'people have voted to leave', and, yes, indeed they did, but the 52 per cent didn't vote to leave with no deal of any sort whatsoever. No, they voted to leave, but without any vision of what leaving would mean. That's what happened, and that's what has brought about this political mess and the splits in our society and the polarisation and the anger we are facing now.

And, yes, there is already suffering in the health sector as medicines and prescription drugs have become increasingly difficult to obtain over the past few months, as international pharmaceutical companies stockpile to prepare for a 'no deal' Brexit now. In the surgery last week, there was no supply of Epilim, an epilepsy drug, or Sinemet, a treatment for Parkinson's, available anywhere. People are facing going without their tablets now, putting their health and lives at risk, whilst every pharmacist is running around trying to find a supply of the appropriate drugs and trying to persuade GPs to prescribe different drugs, but these are the best drugs available for the patients, which were originally chosen by experts in hospitals, and you want the GP to come up with an alternative that will work just as well. Well, our patients are going from surgery to surgery and pharmacist to pharmacist looking for the drug on the prescription, with real concerns now. That's the reality on the ground in our communities today.

And, with the winter approaching, we will need flu vaccines, and there will be significant challenges in obtaining these vaccines without an agreement with the European Union. 'Just get on with it', therefore, means a flu epidemic, with serious illness and deaths among our most vulnerable people in the absence of the main tool to prevent that. A flu epidemic will come this year. It's already hit Australia—it's on its way. So, we will be facing a flu epidemic without the main defence against that epidemic. 'Just get on with it' will just mean looking at my patients and seeing them suffering, and worse. 

Many of our most common drugs—some we are entirely reliant on, such as insulin—at the moment aren't being produced in Britain at all. We are entirely reliant on Europe for our whole supply. That's why our royal colleges are so concerned. Medicine, health, research are all part of a wonderful European network that has delivered for the people of Wales, the people of the UK as a whole. And the partnerships in the development of drugs and treatments, holding international research trials, are all at stake and are expected to be destroyed by a 'no deal' Brexit. The Euratom deal is at risk, which guarantees a supply of medical radioactive isotopes that are produced on the continent and disappear in hours, with a half life of six hours—things such as technetium and molybdenum. The half life of these is very short indeed and using them to treat cancer in the UK is entirely reliant on inter-European collaboration of the highest order to guarantee the success of cancer treatments here in Wales. Ripping this network to shreds with 'no deal' will be extremely damaging for our population here in Wales.

With prorogation preventing the UK Parliament from meeting, which will mean the closure of the Westminster Parliament in its entirety—this isn't a recess; this is the closure of the Parliament—it won't be possible to discuss the details of the availability of drugs and medicines or anything else for a full five weeks. At such a critical time in the history of our nation that is a disgrace. Support our amendments and the motion.