Medicines shortages – the people at the sharp end
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Medicines are the single most frequent healthcare intervention in the UK. Their safe supply is literally a matter of life and death for millions of people. Yet by some measures, medicines shortages are worse than ever.
Changes in global demand, fluctuations in prices and exchange rates, manufacturing problems, disrupted distribution, chronically low UK pricing in a global marketplace, and a broken pharmacy contract that requires pharmacists to dispense at a loss: these factors and more combine to impact on the availability of supplies.
Whether a particular shortage is brewed abroad or domestically, the impact is always, ultimately, deeply local and personal – and felt most by pharmacists and patients at the sharp end.
That is why the NPA invited patient groups to a Medicines Safety and Shortages Briefing last month – for an open exchange of information and ideas.
No-one was satisfied that enough is being done by Government and the NHS to grip the situation, albeit there was broad recognition about the complexity of the challenge.
It was agreed to follow up with political action and steps to improve the public information available to patients encountering shortages.
This is a decade-plus problem with no easy fixes, but we can be certain that the best chance of success will involve working in partnership with patients, as well as government, NHS and the supply chain.
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