Patients are being left in ‘sheer panic’ as some pharmacies are starting to say ‘everything else is gone’.
Many Brits are currently being impacted by a worrying medication shortage in the UK, with pharmacies starting to run out of supply to meet patient prescriptions. Worryingly, some pharmacies in the country only have a “trickle” of aspirin left, which is used by millions of Brits.
As a result, the UK Government has put the pain relieving drug on its export ban list in a bid to protect the UK’s already limited supplies. The current shortage is surrounding the 75mg aspirin, which is taken by people who have a history of strokes, chronic kidney disease, heart disease, and by some people with diabetes.
Used by Brits up and down the country, pharmacies running out of the drug is extremely worrying as by law they are not allowed to move patients onto another variation of the medication without it being signed off by their GP. This means that while the 300mg aspirin is not running out, patients can’t just be given the medication.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Inside Health programme, National Pharmacy Association chair Olivier Picard has described how the current shortage is impacting patients in the UK. With his own pharmacies experiencing problems sourcing the drug, this is also a worrying time for his pharmacists, reports the Express.
Picard said: “It is hit and miss with pharmacies at the moment. I have one pharmacy with a trickle. I was in a pharmacy earlier where I asked ‘do you have any aspirin’ and my pharmacy said ‘I have 16 tablets left in a pack of 100 everything else has gone.’”
He added: “I have another pharmacy which has a few packs of 28 which will probably keep us going for a couple of days and then that is that.” While these stroke prevention drugs are usually readily available, Picard has shared that patients have been left in “sheer panic”.
Picard explained: “You look at sheer panic on their face primarily because they know the importance of taking aspirin and they’ve never had a supply issue.
“That person is saying ‘I’m about to run out what am I going to do then’ and that is really the difficult question to answer because pharmacies are not able to change a prescription and therefore by law even if I have a different strength of a medication or an equivalent medication on the shelf I have to send the patient back to the doctor to have something else prescribed.”
According to Picard, the supply chain shortage is “complicated” as manufacturers aren’t only UK companies but are European-wide, with the UK having some of the cheapest generic prices. These prices have come down further as the Government is preventing too much spending on drugs while prescriptions numbers have risen.
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As a result, the manufacturers are now saying they don’t get a good enough return from the UK and are instead beginning to concentrate on other EU markets such as France, Italy and Germany as they are paying a lot more for aspirin.
Picard added: “Unfortunately today we have a list of over 250 items, of course aspirin is on that list, there are some blood pressure medications and also antidepressants.
“Lots of medications are affected and the list is growing simply because the prices that we are offering manufacturers in this country have come to be so low that the manufacturers are pulling out of the UK market. It’s as simple as that.”
Picard said that a temporary solution would be to give pharmacies the power to change prescriptions as this would allow people to get the medication they need while they head back to their GP to find an alternative solution.
Dr Zubir Ahmen, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Health and Social Care, said: “The Department is aware of a recent disruption to the supply of aspirin dispersible tablets and are working with suppliers to understand the causes and aid a return to normal supply as soon as possible.
“Supply issues have been addressed, and stock is regularly being made available for pharmacies to order. We are working with all partners in the supply chain, including manufacturers and United Kingdom distributors, to ensure maximum accessibility to pharmacies and hospitals irrespective of where they are in the country.
“The Department will continue to monitor the situation and expects supplies to return to normal over the coming weeks.”