The government has issued a variety of “medicine supply notifications” highlighting shortages of labor pain medication, mouth ulcer medication, migraine therapy, an antihistamine, an inhaler type, and a certain brand of insulin, among others.
Pharmacists have warned that a lack of some medications poses a risk to patients.
More than half (54%) of the 1,562 UK pharmacists surveyed by the Pharmaceutical Journal felt that drug shortages have put patients at risk in the past six months.
In recent months, several patients have had trouble obtaining certain medications, often having to visit multiple pharmacies or return to their primary care physician to be prescribed an alternative.
At the beginning of this year, shortages of hormone replacement therapy drugs prompted a public outcry.
The government has issued several “notifications of drug supply problems” since June.
Among these are labor pain relief medications, mouth ulcer medication, migraine treatment, an antihistamine, a drug used by prostate cancer and endomitosis patients, an antipsychotic drug used by bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients, a certain brand of insulin, and an inhaler.
The Pharmaceutical Journal also stated on August 3 that governments asked hospitals to “conserve stock” of a medicine used to treat strokes by preventing blood clots.
Concerns have been made by several pharmacists over the substitution of specific medications for alternatives.
Ways to alleviate scarcity
This month, community pharmacists notified the Pharmaceutical Journal that shortages of the osteoporosis drug alendronic acid were causing medication errors when substitutes were prescribed.
The publication reported that the government and drugstore officials had begun discussing measures to alleviate the shortages.
A pharmacist at an English children’s hospital stated that the inconsistent supply of nutritional goods was putting patients at risk.
“We had to ration it, putting patients in danger of vitamin shortages,” she explained.
Another hospital pharmacist expressed concern about the availability of medications for terminally ill patients.
They stated in the article, “There was no alternative for one patient who had to deal with an additional symptom in his final days due to a lack of therapeutic options.”
Patient safety
Mike Dent, director of pharmacy funding at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, told the journal, “We are becoming increasingly concerned about pharmaceutical supply challenges and their very serious impact on community pharmacy teams and their patients.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care stated, “We take patient safety extremely seriously, and we routinely share information about medicine supply issues directly with the NHS so that they can implement plans to reduce the risk of a shortage affecting patients, such as providing alternative medication.
We have well-established protocols for dealing with medicine shortages and work closely with industry, the National Health Service, and others to prevent shortages and quickly fix any problems that arise.
