Every medicine matters. Every prescription is a promise to a patient to fulfil the treatment they need to improve their quality of life. We are all patients at one time or another. When the system fails in its central mission to ensure the right medicine is delivered to the right patient at the right time, it is critical to understand the reasons and seek solutions.
Sadly, we are in a period of relatively high numbers of medicines shortages. Currently, around 100 presentations are out of stock every month, and this figure has been at a sustained rate for more than a year. It is double what it was two years ago. The broader context is that there is always a level of shortages, and while 100 out of 3,000 available tariff products is proportionally small, if it’s your treatment you can't obtain and it’s been months of unavailability, then it matters hugely.
It’s not only in terms of physical health and well-being but also the mental anguish that shortages cause. The stress of not knowing when and where a much-needed medicine will be available is hard to imagine. There is also the toll on pharmacists who have to work harder and harder to source products while being at the frontline of patient care and having to explain why medicines aren’t available.
The truth of the matter is the UK medicines market is not at resilient as it once was. The UK is no longer as attractive a market for global suppliers who have to prioritise finite supplies. Four out of five #NHS prescription medicines are fulfilled by off-patent products, but the policy environment which could help sustain this often-overlooked industry has been largely absent under successive governments. The result is now a situation where the UK has to compete globally for limited medicine allocations. Manufacturers are having to make difficult decisions, and the UK, for a variety of reasons, is now a much more complex and costly place to do business.
The tangible repercussions are that shortages are becoming increasingly common and, without change, may become the new normal for patients. However, as an industry, we believe changes can be made that would significantly and timely improve supplies.
Many organisations are also considering the supply crisis and what policy interventions may be necessary to enable change. As our contribution, we today publish a paper which outlines areas of policy which could be addressed to improve supply issues. These are recommendations we have discussed with our members and partners and focus on practical solutions which we believe will make a significant impact. No part of the supply chain, or indeed the government, can change this in isolation, and we believe it’s important to canvass a wide range of views as the basis for improvement and ensure patients can access the medicines they need when they need them.
To find out more, read our #MedicinesShortages paper at https://lnkd.in/eZQjsW8Z
