Tougher action needed on supply chain

Pharmacy leaders have called for more stringent supply obligations to be put in place and enforcement action if supply is not adequate, following the Department of Health (DH)'s guidance on the supply chain.

The guidance, published on February 3, stated that pharmacies should receive medicines within 24 hours of ordering and included best practice standards for all members of the supply chain. Although there is no legal obligation to meet the requirements, the DH hopes the guidance will address some of the recent supply chain issues.

But industry leaders called for more action, and pharmacists told C+D the 24 hour delivery target was a "basic requirement".

AAH welcomed the recognition of a maximum waiting period, but said 24 hours was far from an ideal situation. "Most practitioners in the pharmaceutical supply chain will realise that this is still a significant deterioration in the established service that has been the standard within the UK for many years," a spokesperson said.

Mike Hewitson, a community pharmacist in Dorset, agreed. "It's an absolutely basic requirement to supply medicines within 24 hours and we've all got used to a system where they can deliver this," he said.

There were also concerns that the 24 hour target is far from being met. One LPC told C+D: "They are not achieving that at the moment – our pharmacists are often having to wait over four days for drugs to be delivered." PSNC's head of information services, Lindsay McClure, confirmed this, saying "in some cases it's taking between five and seven days".

Despite welcoming the principle of a 24 hour target, Ms McClure also called for more concrete action.

"There is much still to be done if pharmacies are to be able to give confidence to patients who have experienced delays in sourcing the medicines they need," she said. "One of the next steps must be putting in place a framework for enforcement action to be taken where arrangements for the supply of medicines to pharmacies are not adequate."

Ian Facer, chairman of Pharmacy Voice and the NPA, agreed that there needed to be a "stronger obligation on suppliers".  "Community pharmacists on the front line have reported a worsening in the supply situation over recent months. The guidance is a useful first step, but no silver bullet," he said.

The British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers expressed support for a minimum delivery benchmark, saying this would allow pharmacists to judge the timing of branded medicine orders, but also more work was needed.