Pressure mounts on ministers to take more action on shortages
Health ministers are coming under increasing pressure from MPs and pharmacy leaders to take action over stock shortages, despite promising that the government is "not prepared to be complacent" about the problems.
Ogmore MP Huw Irranca-Davies promised to push for further government action on medicines shortages after claiming that minister Simon Burns failed to answer "fundamental questions" during a parliamentary debate on the topic on November 24.
"The minister didn't seem to recognise that this issue has been going on for a number of years and seems to be worsening," the Labour MP told C+D after the debate.
Mr Irranca-Davies used the debate to outline the problems medicines shortages were causing. He cited preliminary results from the C+D Stocks Survey, which continues to uncover incidents of patients being harmed by stock shortages and has found that some pharmacists are spending more than five hours a week sourcing medicines, as part of his evidence to parliament.
In his response, Mr Burns told parliament that the government would keep a "watchful eye" on the situation and pledged: "This is not an issue that will be discussed just once and then forgotten."
He also stressed that manufacturers and distributors
were already duty-bound to ensure the continuous supply of medicines and could face regulatory action or criminal prosecution if they failed to do so.
"Some other EU member states have a very precise definition of how soon medicines should be received, but we are cautious about going down that road. It would vastly increase regulation on the industry and drive up costs across the board," he argued.
But his comments came under fire from pharmacy leaders, who questioned his assertion that supply chain best practice guidance had been "very successful in minimising the impact of shortages".
"The guidance has not been successful – patients and pharmacists have seen no improvement in the situation," said PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe.
This week the committee revealed that 84 per cent of respondents to its survey on shortages had seen patients going without medicines because of delays in dispensing, and 89 per cent felt the problems had not improved in the past three months.
Mr Irranca-Davies also argued that the measures brought in so far were not working, and he expressed concern that Mr Burns had told parliament the government did not want to bring in additional regulation to resolve the matter.
"That's the crux of the matter – the government seems minded not to bring in any additional regulation no matter what the necessity or how strong the support," Mr Irranca-Davies told C+D.
Mr Irranca-Davies now hopes to secure a longer debate on the matter so that he can go into more detailed discussion and, where relevant, challenge the minister on his responses. He has also written to health boards in Wales and to PCTs in England to gather their views on the matter, and he hopes to be able to confront the government with evidence of the impact stock shortages are having.
Last chance to help!
If your patients and staff are being affected by medicines shortages, complete the C+D Stocks Survey by December 16 and we'll submit your evidence to the APPG inquiry and to the DH, and enter you into a prize draw to win £150 of John Lewis vouchers:
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