Pharmacists have rebuffed pharmacy minister Earl Howe's call for them to prove that medicines shortages are causing patient harm, claiming they have already sent enough evidence for the government to treat it as a priority.

Earl Howe reiterated his claim that the government's approach to shortages was "the right one" and challenged pharmacists to provide proof that supply problems were causing patients serious harm, rather than inconvenience, in an exclusive interview with C+D last week (July 30).

But pharmacists said the government was "completely naive" to think that shortages were not harming patients and questioned what else pharmacy bodies could do to persuade the minister of the seriousness of supply problems.

"They don't want to see the anecdotal reports that we're feeding into them. It seems like they don't want persuading" Robbie Turner, CPWY	More on stock shortages Report your instances of stock shortages and       download tools to highlight the problem Sign C+D's petition on stock shortages Earl Howe on medicines shortages MORE NEWS
	Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire (CPWY) chief executive Robbie Turner stressed that he had already told the Department of Health that patients had been harmed. "They don't want to see the anecdotal reports that we're feeding into them. It seems like they don't want persuading," he told C+D.

As well as direct harm, shortages could undermine medicines optimisation strategies by making patients feel that pharmacists did not take the supply of their medicines seriously, he added.

Pharmacy Voice said it had submitted robust data to the government about the impact of shortages on patients "months ago".

"It reveals widespread and frequent incidents of patient distress, which ought to be quite enough for the Department of Health to treat the matter as a priority," said Pharmacy Voice spokesperson Gareth Jones.

Mike Hewitson, owner of Beaminster Pharmacy, Dorset, said it was "completely naive" to think that shortages did not cause harm. "For some people, anxiety is as much a cause of harm and distress as physical symptoms," he told C+D.

Last week, CPWY and Leeds local medical committee expressed disappointment with the response they received from the Department of Health to their joint letter calling for "firm action" on shortages.

Pharmacy leaders hit back at Earl Howe in November last year when he told the all-party pharmacy group that the government's approach to shortages was "working well". He was also "not aware" of the shortages causing patient harm, he said at the time.

C+D has launched:

● a stock shortages reporting app

● a patient petition

● a window poster

● a customer leaflet

Visit the Sort Out Stocks homepage for more information and to sign C+D's petition against stock shortages.

Will you use C+D's tools to make the government aware of patient harm from shortages in your pharmacy? Comment below or email us at [email protected] You can also find C+D on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook