EXCLUSIVE

The Department of Health (DH) should hand out "yellow cards" to manufacturers who do not adhere to medicines supply guidelines, the British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (BAPW) has said.

The DH was not policing government guidance that states that pharmacists should receive medicines within 24 hours, BAPW executive director Martin Sawer told C+D in an exclusive interview.

Although the UK had a culture of non-interference in market forces, the DH needed to act as a "stronger referee" and ensure members of the supply chain respected their obligation to pharmacists, Mr Sawer said at the organisation's annual conference yesterday (June 23).

"One thing I don't think is being monitored at all is that pharmacists should [receive medicines] within 24 hours. That has been delicately put to one side at the moment," he said.

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	Mr Sawer suggested that the DH should regularly collect data from a sample of "willing" pharmacists around the country to get a "snapshot" of why they were not receiving medicines on time, he told C+D. "It would be nice to have some better data and better policing to bring everyone up to the same standards," he said.

The government's supply chain forum, of which BAPW is a member, was "slowly working" on ways to improve communication across the supply chain and increase buffer stocks, Mr Sawer added.

The DH told C+D it continued to work with the supply chain, the MHRA and NHS England to make sure the best practice guidance on medicines supply was adopted.

In May, the DH ignored C+D's call for urgent action on stock shortages despite readers' evidence of patient harm in three quarters of cases. Pharmacy minister Earl Howe failed to retract his statement that the current approach to shortages was "working well".

Last year, Mr Sawer warned that the NHS needed to persuade supply chain businesses to share information on medicines shortages, which could be commercially sensitive, so that the situation would not worsen.

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