Patients are facing serious harm from persistent and widespread medicine shortages, MPs and peers have warned. A new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on pharmacy called for urgent action to ensure shortages do not become the “new normal”. It also highlights the impact that shortages are having on patients with the likes of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), menopause and diabetes.
Writing in the report, Steve Race, chairman of the APPG on pharmacy, said many MPs “have received a growing volume of correspondence from constituents who are understandably anxious about the availability of their medicines”. “Whether it is a parent unable to access antibiotics for a sick child, an elderly patient facing delays in obtaining life-sustaining medication, or a pharmacist overwhelmed by the need to source alternatives, the human impact is both visible and deeply troubling,” he wrote.
The report said that while medicine shortages are “not a new phenomenon”, they have “become increasingly severe, persistent, and disruptive” in recent years – leading to consequences for patients, staff and the wider health service. Mr Race said: “Medicines shortages have moved from isolated incidents to a chronic structural challenge for both the NHS and pharmacy sector.
“As Government continues to recognise and invest in the expanded clinical role of community pharmacy, we must ensure the medicines supply chain underpinning that care is equally robust, resilient and patient-focused. Pharmacy is central to NHS recovery and transformation, but frontline teams cannot safely expand clinical services while daily supply disruptions continue to impact the health of patients.”
The findings also highlight how shortages severely impact patients with conditions like ADHD, menopause and diabetes. More than nine in 10 pharmacists, GPs and prescribers told an APPG survey ADHD medicines had been affected by shortages.
Around three quarters (76%) said HRT and diabetes drugs had been affected, while 44% said antibiotics. One patient with ADHD told the inquiry they had been self-medicating with cannabis due to an ongoing shortage of methylphenidate.
The report said: “These shortages are having a significant impact on patients’ ability to access treatments and in some cases are having serious impact on patients’ health and well-being.”
Mr Race added: “Medicines security must be treated as a core component of NHS planning, alongside funding, workforce and digital infrastructure. Failure to act risks further undermining patient care and destabilising a community pharmacy sector that millions depend upon.”
The APPG has laid out a number of recommendations, which includes a number of measures to better support patients. People impacted by shortages, particularly those with chronic conditions, struggle to find information on out of stock drugs, leading to “frustration, dangerous delays in care, and unnecessary anxiety and harm”, it said.
It also welcomed work being carried out by the Department of Health and Social Care to potentially change pharmacist prescribing protocols to allow pharmacists to make dose and formulation changes during shortages. Elsewhere, the inquiry found more than eight in 10 pharmacists face daily shortages, with many spending hours every day finding alternative treatment and communicating with distressed patients.
One told the APPG they are “constantly firefighting”.
Reacting to the report, Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said: “Pharmacy teams are under enormous pressure but are forced to spend hours hunting down stock for distressed and frustrated patients. It is particularly frustrating for pharmacists to be unable to meet a clear need when they have a perfectly safe and effective solution in their pharmacy already.
“MPs are right that it is madness to send someone back to their GP to get a prescription changed, and it risks a patient either delaying taking vital medication or forgoing it altogether, which poses a clear risk to patient safety. As the APPG says, the Government must allow pharmacists – who are highly trained health care practitioners – to use their professional judgment to supply an appropriate alternative medication when the prescribed version is unavailable.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited ongoing global supply problems, but we have robust measures in place to mitigate disruption for patients. We are working to build the resilience of medicine supply chains and prevent future disruption as we get the NHS back on its feet.
“We have recently agreed an extra £617 million of funding over two years with Community Pharmacy England to support the sector and provide patients with more services closer to home as part of our 10 Year Health Plan.”
