Government must revise definition of patient harm, says APPG
The government must review its definition of patient harm as stock shortages can cause them unecessary anxiety, says APPG
The government should revise its "narrow view" of patient harm to reflect the distress caused by stock shortages, the all-party pharmacy group (APPG) has said.
The sector needed a "more realistic" definition of harm that reflected the anxiety some patients felt when they were unable to access their medicines, APPG chair and Labour MP Sir Kevin Barron said on Wednesday (July 23).
Last year, C+D supplied the government with evidence from readers that patients were harmed in three quarters of cases of shortages. Pharmacy bodies branded pharmacy minister Earl Howe'sreaction to the report in May "unacceptable" after he failed to retract his statement that the government's current approach to shortages was "working well".
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Stock shortages are causing patients unecessary stress, says APPG chair and Labour MP Sir Kevin Barron
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Sir Kevin said the government should do more to address shortages, which were causing patients "stress and inconvenience", following an APPG round table meeting with pharmacy bodies, including PSNC, manufacturers, wholesalers and the Department of Health (DH) last week. Pharmacists' hard work was masking the true extent of branded medicine shortages, while generic drug shortages were worsening and could leave patients without their medicines, he said. |
"It seems the work pharmacists do in minimising disruption to patients is giving the impression that the issue of shortages has lessened, but the problem remains," he said.
The DH's supply chain forum was failing to address shortages of generic medicines, which could be "disastrous" for patients, Sir Kevin said. "Some of the causes of generic shortages reflect the globalisation of the generics market. But that cannot be an excuse for no action here in the UK," he said.
On branded medicine shortages, Sir Kevin said "opaque and inflexible" quotas imposed by manufacturers and wholesalers meant pharmacists spent a "large amount of time" negotiating to obtain medicines or rationing their supply.
The DH should publish supply chain best practice for setting quotas to address this issue, he added.
Last month, the British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers told C+D that the DH was failing to police government guidance that states that pharmacists should receive medicines within 24 hours.
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