Call for Government action to tackle medicines shortages

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) – supported by Community Pharmacy England, charities and patient groups – is calling on the Government to better manage medicine shortages and allow community pharmacists to supply appropriate alternatives when medicines are in short supply.

A new report compiled by the RPS, Medicines Shortages: solutions for empty shelves, describes the multitude of issues that have created ‘a perfect storm of unstable supply’ and are making it harder for patients to access treatment.

The report calls on the Government to create a national strategy to both prevent and manage medicine shortages that would streamline efforts across the NHS, reduce inefficiencies caused by duplication of effort and ensure information and guidance for professionals and patients is available as soon as shortages occur.

It also urges the Government to legislate to allow community pharmacists to make minor amends to prescriptions (enabling supply of a different quantity, strength or form) when medicines are subject to shortages. This move already has support from medical organisations, patient groups and other pharmacy bodies.

Other recommendations in the report include:

• Improving reporting by manufacturers: prompt alerting of the risk of shortages could help to better manage the impact on patients.
• Building supply chain resilience: strengthening NHS procurement contracts to ensure manufacturers can meet supply demands and respond to shortages quickly.
• Educating the public: informing patients of what to do if they are unable to obtain medicines – and what not to do to ensure continued supply for others.

Read the ‘Medicines Shortages: solutions for empty shelves’ report

Our work on medicines shortages

Community Pharmacy England contributed to the findings of the RPS report and supports many of its recommendations. Medicines supply issues continue to be a daily battle for community pharmacy, as described in our 2024 Medicines Supply Report, and it has therefore never been more important for pharmacies to continue to report any problems they experience in obtaining medicines to us.

We share information on medicines supply issues with DHSC to support its monitoring of the supply chain. Community pharmacy teams are encouraged to sign up to the Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) website which has a Medicines Supply tool that provides the latest information on supply issues, actions to take, alternatives for prescribers to consider, and expected resolution dates.

If pharmacy teams experience any difficulties obtaining medicines affected by supply issues or shortages, please report these to Community Pharmacy England using our online shortages reporting form. All reported shortages are shared with DHSC’s Medicines Supply Team who then investigate the extent of the issue and work with the wider supply chain to try and mitigate the problem or identify suitable alternatives. Note that if a product is available but cannot be purchased at or below the published Drug Tariff price, a price concession can be requested by reporting the pricing issue to us.  Please use the correct form to report any pricing issues as these are used to inform the price concessions whereas the information gathered from the shortages reporting form is used to inform DHSC about the unavailability of a product in a community pharmacy.

The continual high number of products experiencing availability and pricing issues can make reporting problems just as time-consuming as managing them, but all of the information you provide helps our work to investigate the extent of each problem and is used as evidence in our discussions with DHSC. We are exploring ways to make the process of reporting issues quicker and easier, and will continue to push for more support for pharmacy teams who come face-to-face with the frustration felt by patients every day.

You can learn more about our work in this area, as well as find materials to explain supply issues to patients, in our Medicine shortages hub.

Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said:

“It is worrying that medicines supply problems continue to affect pharmacy teams and their patients. The RPS study matches closely with our own 2024 Medicines Supply Report, which also highlighted the frustration and inconvenience caused by increasing level of medicine shortages. Patients with a wide range of clinical and therapeutic needs are being impacted now more than ever before, and problems with sourcing their medications have become a daily challenge for pharmacy teams.

Community Pharmacy England contributed to the findings of this report and is fully supportive of many of its recommendations, including allowing pharmacists to make minor adjustments to prescriptions to supply alternative strengths or formulations and sharing more information about the reasons behind supply issues. We are also supporting the call for a cross-government and NHS strategy to improve medicines access, which could lead to outcomes such as benefit sharing and relief mechanisms.

More needs to be done urgently to protect patients and community pharmacies from ongoing supply chain disruptions. The health and wellbeing of local communities and the public should not be put at risk, and there should be no delays in patients being able to access the medicines they need, when they need them.”