Commenting on a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Pharmacy into medicine shortages, Henry Gregg, Chief Executive of the National Pharmacy Association said:
"The APPG are right to recognise the immense challenges medicine shortages continue to pose both patients and pharmacies.
"It should cause deep alarm that we have some of the longest running medicine shortages in history, with Creon and Estradot recently having their title extended as being Britain's longest running medicine shortage on record.
"We agree with the APPG that more can be done to prevent medicine shortages before they have happened and the government should convene a taskforce bringing together the whole supply chain to tackle this.
"The government's response to their consultation on allowing pharmacists to make substitutions if a medicine is not in stock is long overdue and should be published urgently.
"This would prevent patients having to go back to their GP unnecessarily to make small changes to a prescription."
