Supply chain guidance not delivering, chief pharmacist tells Sigma delegates
England's chief pharmacist Keith Ridge has admitted Department of Health guidelines recommending a 24-hour delivery time for medicines have not had the desired impact on stock shortages.
Addressing the Sigma conference in Thailand, Mr Ridge acknowledged pharmacies were still not receiving medicines within the recommended time period.
The comments followed results from C+D's Stock Survey 2011, which revealed that half of readers believe the guidelines had been "very poor" at solving the problem since their introduction one year ago.
Mr Ridge said he was aware of the frustration supply problems were causing. "In such a large and complex system as the NHS there always have been and always will be problems with the supply of some medicines, but it's critical that patients get medicines when they need them," he told the conference. "I know how frustrating and concerning it can be when you can't always provide the level of service that you would like to."
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Pharmacists have reported cases of patient harm as a result of medicine shortages |
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| Mr Ridge added that he would like to "pay tribute to" pharmacists' efforts to source medicines. |
Why do we tolerate medicine shortages?All-party pharmacy group (APPG) chair Kevin Barron told C+D he believed the stock shortages had impacted on patients, hitting out at the government's previous stance that it would not take action unless there was evidence of patient harm.
"It would be a sad day if we had to wait for patient harm to occur," the Labour MP said. "We have heard anecdotal evidence that there was patient harm, but certainly pharmacists are saying it's not conducive to the running of their businesses."
The APPG will publish its report on its medicines shortages inquiry during the first quarter of this year. Earlier this month, pharmacy bodies gave evidence at an oral session of the inquiry, hitting out against manufacturer quotas.
Is there a solution to stock shortages? Watch our video and post your comments below.
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What steps do you think need to be taken to help tackle stock shortages?
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