No plans’ to review meds shortage impact on pharmacies
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Health minister Karin Smyth this week (June 17) told MPs that the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) “has no plans to conduct a specific review” on the impact of medicine supply chain shortages on community pharmacies.
She added, however, that the DH “regularly [meets]...to routinely take action to mitigate supply issues, including requesting additional stock, identifying alternative global sources and issuing management advice”.
“Increasing the resilience of the UK medical supply chain is a key priority,” she said.
Read more: Minister downplays ‘worst ever’ Creon cancer drug shortages
It comes as North East London Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) chief executive Shilpa Shah yesterday (June 19) told C+D that “during my 25 years in community pharmacy, the number of out of stocks we have at the moment is the most I’ve seen”.
“This is causing concern for patients and carers, and extra workload and stress for stretched workforces in primary care,” she said.
“We need urgent measures to be put into place that allow pharmacists to make suitable substitutions as well as looking at prescribing quantities to ensure there is no stockpiling or wastage,” Shah added.
Event in “autumn”
The health minister’s comments were made in response to a question from pharmacist and Labour MP for North Somerset Sadik Al-Hassan during a parliamentary debate.
He had asked the DH whether it would “undertake a review of the potential impact of medicine supply chain shortages on community pharmacies”.
“Will the minister meet me, along with Steve Race and other members of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on pharmacy, to discuss the outcome of our inquiry into these shortages,” he asked.
Read more: Cancer patients ‘skipping meals’ amid ‘worst ever’ stock shortage
“I am planning to hold a parliamentary event on the subject in the autumn, and I am keen to work with the APPG to make it a success for all members,” Smyth responded.
And she said that in the meantime, the DH “constantly [works] to identify and take forward further actions to reduce the impact of medicine shortages, including targeted winter monitoring”.
Read more: Substitutions: DH to launch emergency consultation in ‘summer 2025′
Speaking at a parliamentary event this week (June 18), APPG chair and Labour MP for Exeter Race said that the group’s report on medicine shortages would be “coming out soon”.
He said that shortages are “an issue that is well known” and the APPG “wanted to have [its] say on what some solutions to that might look like”.
Creon crisis
It comes after the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed earlier this month that 96% of members have experienced “challenges supplying” cancer drug Creon, with some calling it “the ‘worst stock shortage’ they have ever had to deal with”.
Pharmacies warned of “patients skipping meals, rationing doses and travelling distances of over 30 miles” to get hold of the medication, as well as “hours hunting stock” and “difficulties” in supplying alternatives.
Read more: New evidence Brexit caused UK medicines shortages
But health minister Baroness Merron appeared to downplay the Creon shortage during a House of Lords debate just days later, stating that while she “[accepts] patients may have concerns”, the drugs “are being provided to those who need them”.
“I believe that we are looking at this very seriously,” she said, but added that “to be honest, we cannot prevent all medicine shortages”.
Last month, the DH announced that it will consult on granting pharmacists “the flexibility to supply” drug alternatives in “cases of immediate clinical need” after a toddler died during antibiotic shortages.
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