Drug shortage: Patients with these common conditions at risk, pharmacists warn

There has been a shortage of some common and in-demand drugs in the UK for the past six months, putting scores of patients at increased risk, Sky News reports. A recent survey shows that many patients are forced to jump from one pharmacy to the other in search of their prescriptions, while others have to go back to their GP to be prescribed an alternative.

Medicine supply notifications

A survey of more than 1,500 pharmacists in the UK found that 54% believed the health of patients have been put at risk in the past six months due to shortages, according to the Pharmaceutical Journal who conducted the poll.

News of the shortage first broke earlier this year when it was discovered that hormone replacement drugs had been in short supply across the country. According to Sky News, the government, since June, has issued series of ‘medicine supply notifications’ to inform relevant bodies about the shortages.

A pharmacist at a children's hospital in England was quoted in the journal as saying, problems with variable supply of nutritional products was putting patients at risk.

We had to ration it, and this has potentially put patients at risk of vitamin deficiencies.

Drugs in short supply

Some of the drugs that have been in short supply include:

• pain relief drugs used in childbirth
• mouth ulcer medication
• migraine treatment
• an antihistamine; a drug used by prostate cancer and endometriosis patients
• an antipsychotic drug used among bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients

A type of inhaler and a particular brand of insulin are affected as well. Mike Dent, director of pharmacy funding at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, told the journal:

We are becoming increasingly concerned about medicine supply issues and the very serious impact this is having on both community pharmacy teams and their patients.

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