NHS Patients Face Record Medicine Shortages as Critical Drugs Run Out

The Lead

Britons are facing some of the "most severe" shortages of NHS medicines on record including common painkillers, epilepsy drugs and HRT, health leaders have warned, even forcing some patients with impaired digestive systems to skip meals.

Record-Breaking Shortages of Critical Medications

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that medicine shortages pose a "serious risk to patient safety." The Royal College of GPs has also raised concerns about the impact medicine shortages have on patients, GPs and pharmacists.

Both have highlighted long-lasting supply issues affecting Estradot, a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal women, and Creon, a drug taken by people with pancreatic cancer and cystic fibrosis to help them digest food.

Both medications have had serious shortage protocols (SSPs) in place for between one-and-a-half (Estradot) and two years (Creon) – a new NHS record – and SSPs were recently extended by the NHS until 10 July.

Impact on Patient Health and Wellbeing

Pharmacies say this is forcing some patients to ration medication and, in some instances, even skip meals because they have been unable to obtain supplies.

Bryony Thomas, 48, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, describes herself as a pancreatic cancer survivor. Along with other survivors, she expects to rely on Creon for the rest of her life because her pancreas does not produce the enzymes to digest food. She said she had been affected by the shortages for the past two years and has had to ration the drug, most recently nine months ago.

"There was a three-month window where I couldn't get hold of my enzymes [Creon], so I had to reduce what I was eating. You'd have a much smaller meal, you eat less protein, you eat less fat," Thomas said. "If I get anything down to under a month [of supply] I start to panic."

Systemic Causes of Medicine Shortages

The Middle East conflict has made supply chains more volatile although it is not the only factor driving shortages, the NPA said.

Lack of ingredients, manufacturing disruption, the UK's smaller medicines budget compared with other EU countries, and in the case of HRT, changing prescribing habits all play a part. Prices of some drugs, such as paracetamol and cetirizine for hay fever, have increased as a result.

Pharmacies have also been struggling to source a number of commonly dispensed medicines, including Ramipril, used to manage high blood pressure, along with painkillers such as low-dose aspirin and co-codamol.

Call for Government Action

The NPA, which represents 6,000 independent community pharmacies in the UK, wants the government to convene an urgent taskforce including medicine manufacturers, wholesalers and clinicians to tackle the issues.

More than 1,000 GPs and pharmacists will meet in Birmingham at a new conference organised by the NPA this weekend to discuss, among other things, improved information sharing about medicines.

Olivier Picard, a pharmacist who chairs the NPA, said: "Medicine shortages are becoming more frequent, lasting longer and causing increasing disruption for patients."

He called on the government to amend legislation that prevents pharmacies from making substitutions to a prescription, where a safe alternative is in stock.

Official Response

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "The overwhelming majority of medicines licensed in the UK are in good supply and patients should know that when visiting the pharmacy, their prescriptions will be available.

"Ensuring there is robust supply of medicines is vital and this government is making significant investments in the UK medicine manufacturing industry to strengthen it."