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Christmas Adjournment

I will not, if the hon. Lady does not mind, because I realise that not everybody will get to contribute if I do not keep my remarks brief. I want to make one more quick point. It is about generic prescribing. I had a letter from a young man who has to take drugs for his epilepsy every day. He pointed out to me that he has great difficulty because of generic prescribing. When he goes to get his repeat prescription, it is not always the same drug, although chemically, I am told, it should be. His body has got used to one particular compilation of drugs. He is concerned that the way in which the drugs are put together means that he has difficulty moving from one brand to another, although technically the drug is the same. I take prescribed drugs, and will have to do so for the rest of my life. I take one of the drugs as a tablet twice a day, which is very simple, but recently I noticed that I have got a different sort of drug—these are all generic drugs—and I was told to take it an hour before I eat. I was presented with a problem; I thought, ““Does that mean I've got to wake up at 6 o'clock to take the drug, go back to sleep for an hour, and then get up and have breakfast?”” These things are really quite difficult. Of course, not everybody reads all the small print on those little boxes of medication. I always do. Will the Minister be good enough to have a word with the Department of Health about the issue? I am not suggesting that there are big differences in what is prescribed, but sometimes there are significant differences that are of concern to people for whom it is important, as far as their medical condition is concerned, to take the same medication at the same time each day. May I wish everybody in the House—Members, staff and officers—a very happy Christmas? And don't forget—come to Devon for the new year.