NEWS

Pharmacists say they are struggling to obtain many common medicines including painkillers and anti-depressants. This is leaving patients complaining of delays in getting hold of drugs and pharmacists paying over the odds for common medicines. There are 80 medicines in such short supply that the Department of Health has agreed to pay a premium for them. This is up from 45 in October, although there was a spike in November 2017.There are a number of reasons why this has happened, but there are now concerns that uncertainty over Brexit will only make the situation worse.

What does this mean for patients?

Most people should be able to get their prescriptions filled as normal. But if they need one of the drugs that is running short, they might not be so lucky. Some pharmacists are sending patients back to their GPs to ask for a different medicine or dosage. Others are giving as much of a drug as they can spare and sending people away with IOU notes for the remainder.

What is the scale of the problem?

It is hard to obtain a definitive tally of which medicines are running short. But the industry in England uses a list from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). It shows which drugs are in such short supply and for which ones the NHS has agreed to temporarily pay a higher price.

What drugs are affected?

This is about prescriptions for generic medicines, rather than specific brand names. For example, Nurofen is a common painkiller, but you can buy the same generic drug, ibuprofen. Ash Soni, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, says he has never seen so many common drugs affected by shortages. On December 2018's concession list, 28 drugs, or about a third, were among the 500 most commonly prescribed. For example, furosemide is used to treat high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems. It comes in various dosages, but one type, 40mg tablets, is the 23rd most commonly prescribed drug in England. 

Why is this happening?

Industry figures all stress that there is no single, neat answer to explain such a complicated situation.

Suggestions for reasons behind the shortage include:

• increased global demand
• cost of raw materials
• new regulatory requirements driving up costs
• fluctuations in exchange rates
• generic companies being unwilling to carry on selling unprofitable products.

Another possible explanation is that the NHS has done too good a job of driving down the prices it will pay for drugs. The PSNC says this makes the UK a less attractive market for manufacturers.

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