NPA responds to APPG medicine shortages report

Responding to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Pharmacy's report on medicine shortages, Henry Gregg, Chief Executive of the National Pharmacy Association said:

As this report shows, ongoing shortages of medicine causes huge challenges for patients and pharmacies alike and in certain cases poses a serious risk to patient safety. Pharmacy teams are under enormous pressure but are forced to spend hours hunting down stock for distressed and frustrated patients.

It is particularly frustrating for pharmacists to be unable to meet a clear need when they have a perfectly safe and effective solution in their pharmacy already. MPs are right that it is madness to send someone back to their GP to get a prescription changed, and it risks a patient either delaying taking vital medication or forgoing it altogether, which poses a clear risk to patient safety.

As the APPG says, the government must allow pharmacists – who are highly trained health care practitioners – to use their professional judgment to supply an appropriate alternative medication when the prescribed version is unavailable.

Henry Gregg – NPA Chief Executive