Daily Mail - 13.08.2019

Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 Page 31

Our menopause ordeal, by sofa stars

By Jennifer Ruby Senior

Showbusiness Correspondent

Speaking out, from left: Andrea McLean, 49, Liz Earle, 56, Louise Minchin, 50, Trisha Goddard, 61,

Meg Mathews, 53, Kay Burley, 58, and Sharron Davies, 56, told of their experiences of the menopause

STARS of daytime TV have spoken

out about the debilitating effects

of the menopause.

Presenters including Kay Burley,

Liz Earle and Louise Minchin told

how the menopause has affected

their personal lives and careers.

Sky newsreader Miss Burley, 58,

said that her hot sweats have ‘got

really bad’ in the last six months

and the hair and make-up team at

Sky News are aware that she

needs them more often. ‘They

always carry rollers to put oomph

in my hair or touch up my pow-

der,’ she told Hello! Magazine.

Author and TV host Miss Earle,

56, said that she was never warned

about the physical effects of the

menopause by her GP.

‘Symptoms usually appear when

we’re in this sandwiched genera-

tion of caring for kids and possibly

elderly parents, and busy at work,

so you might think you’re stressed

and tired because of those rea-

sons,’ she said.

affected, as well as HRT drugs.

This includes certain painkillers

and blood pressure drugs. One of

the anti-inflammatories has also

been out of stock.

‘Overall, it is a lot of drugs that

are crucial to people’s lives and

obviously any shortage can cause

a lot of anxiety.’

Professor Helen Stokes-Lamp-

ard, chairman of the Royal Col-

lege of GPs, said: ‘One problem

is that GPs have no reliable way

of knowing what is and what isn’t

available in real time as our com-

puter systems are not linked

with pharmacies.’

Pharmacists warned that there

were shortages ‘across the

board’. Other drugs which have

been affected include furosem-

ide, irbesartan and varsarltan,

which treat high blood pressure,

and naproxen, an anti-inflamma-

tory drug that is similar to ibu-

profen. GPs said they have also

been experiencing shortages of

oral contraceptives.

Epilepsy UK also warned it has

seen a sharp rise in the number

of patients struggling to get

medication to control seizures.

These include Epanutin, Epilim,

and Topamax. Scott McDougall,

of The Independent Pharmacy,

an online chemist, said: ‘Short-

ages this year have been the

worst we have ever known,

although HRT is by far the worst-

affected group of drugs.’

The pharmacist said a number

of factors, including Brexit stock-

piling and a European directive,

had combined to cause short-

ages. In February, the European

Medicines Agency introduced

strict new rules to prevent medi-

cations being tampered with.

‘In China several factories have

had to shut down because of pol-

lution laws,’ he added. ‘This is

where a lot of the raw ingredi-

ents are made.’

Good Health – Page 43

GPS DELUGED

IN HRT CRISIS

HRT crisis: Now

supply shortage

hits more drugs

By Eleanor Hayward

Health Reporter

PRODUCTION problems

that have hit supplies of

HRT drugs are causing

shortages of other medica-

tions, pharmacists warned

last night.

Supplies of blood pressure

pills, painkillers and epilepsy

treatments have all been

affected in recent months due

to a ‘perfect storm’ of produc-

tion issues, experts said.

It means pharmacists are regu-

larly having to send patients

back to their GP to get a differ-

ent prescription because they

are unable to fill them.

Around half of HRT drug

brands are currently out of stock

in a crisis that is hitting almost

all the 200,000 British women on

the medication.

Yesterday GPs said they are

being ‘kept in the dark’ over the

causes of the shortage as they

experienced a surge in inquiries

from concerned women. They

also warned it is difficult to find

up-to-date information on which

HRT drugs are available in their

local pharmacies as supplies

fluctuate ‘day by day’.

Dr Hannah Short, a GP who

specialises in the menopause,

said: ‘I have heard from other

GPs that other sectors are being

Yesterday’s Daily Mail

Picture: HELLO MAGAZINE/ PA WIRE

sixth investigator. In September 2016,

the director decreed there was no

case to answer. ‘I was told once again

to “forget it. It [was] finished.” ’

But, of course, it wasn’t.

A month later, while at the military

rehabilitation centre at Headley

Court in Surrey, where he was

diagnosed with a brain injury, Mr

Campbell learned the decision to

drop the case had been challenged.

The dead Iraqi’s family wanted it to

be reviewed.

So for the seventh time, the case was

investigated by a new prosecutor. In

January 2018, he, too, concluded there

was no case to answer.

By then, the tide had turned against

the Iraqi atrocity compensation

industry. Phil Shiner was facing

serious professional disciplinary

proceedings. His firm, PIL, closed in

August 2016 and he was struck off as

a solicitor after being found guilty of

multiple professional misconduct

charges, including dishonesty and

lack of integrity.

IHAT was closed down, having

spent £34 million of taxpayers’ money

and been thoroughly discredited. It

failed to secure a single prosecution.

But, by then, Mr Campbell learned

his case was being scrutinised — for

the eighth time — by the Iraq Fatality

Investigations, set up in 2014 to carry

out inquiries into civilian deaths

linked to Britain’s military in Iraq.

The IFI was led by retired High

Court judge Sir George Newman,

who was paid £900 a day. But Sir

George died in June.

‘The MoD have not yet advertised

for his successor,’ says Mr Campbell.

‘I’m told they are working on the

theory that Boris Johnson might

want to make changes.’

He says the Government has

promised them that any evidence

they give will not be used to

prosecute them, either in the UK or

at the International Criminal Court

(ICC) in The Hague.

‘But the assurances they give us are

complete bull****,’ he says. ‘The MoD

says that if they don’t investigate, the

ICC will. But I have been told by the

chief prosecutor at the ICC that their

remit is to prosecute commanders

and political leaders, not individual

soldiers like me.’

Which, of course, brings us to what

lurks behind this extraordinary case:

the question of overall responsibility

for the disastrous war in Iraq.

‘The people the ICC would be

interested in are Tony Blair,

[former Defence Secretary] Geoff

Hoon, and the generals — not a

lieutenant in 32 Engineer Regiment,’

says Mr Campbell.

‘I am convinced that IHAT was set

up to divert the blame away from

senior figures.’

Mr Campbell was medically

discharged from the Army in May

2018 and feels abandoned. ‘They

said: “This investigation could take

years. Off you go.” ’

But where?

He cannot work because of his

health and he has a wife and eight-

month-old son to support.

So far, the Army has decreed he is

only 14 per cent disabled and so he

gets an ill-health pension ‘less than

one-third of my Army pay’.

Speaking yesterday, an MoD

spokesman said: ‘We recognise the

significant impact that investigations

into historical allegations can have

on members of the Armed Forces

and veterans.

‘That’s why we are consulting

on a package of new measures,

including a presumption against

prosecution, to ensure that service

personnel and veterans are not

subject to legal proceedings many

years after alleged events and where

there is no new evidence.’

Meanwhile, Robert Campbell’s fight

to clear his name goes on. It is the

hardest battle he has fought.

FROM PAGE 29

‘They said: “This

could take years.

Off you go...” ‘