Commenting on new research on medicine shortages from the Nuffield Foundation published today, Director of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England James Davies said:
“The report demonstrates the challenges in assuring effective medication supply and the international nature of the causes of medicines shortages. It’s also right to call for better data-sharing on medicine shortages, as other countries have more transparent, publicly available data. A lack of clarity on why a medicine is in shortage and when it is likely to return are huge issues for patients, who are naturally anxious about getting the treatments they need.
“We urge the Government to amend medicines legislation to help ease shortages by allowing all community pharmacists to make minor amendments to prescriptions to adjust the strength or formulation required. At present, if a liquid version of a medicine is available but tablets have been prescribed and are out of stock, the pharmacist cannot provide the liquid version. The patient has no choice but to return to the prescriber for a new prescription, which causes unnecessary workload for GPs and delays for the patient. Hospital pharmacists have been able to make these changes for years, and their colleagues in community pharmacy should be able to do so as well.”
As pharmacists spend more and more time sourcing essential medications for patients, RPS has launched a new project to examine the causes of the growing challenge of medicines shortages and help tackle their impact on patients and pharmacy practice.
Find out more about our medicine shortages project.
Read more RPS news stories.