EXCLUSIVE

Simplified PMR codes to communicate the cause of stock shortages are set to be trialled by the end of this year, C+D has learned.
 
Pharmacy Voice and wholesalers were working with PMR code providers to convert the existing 35-40 codes that give pharmacists the reason for stock shortages into “10 simplified, universally applicable” ones, British Association of Wholesalers (BAPW) chief executive Martin Sawer told C+D on Tuesday (April 7).

Mr Sawer said he hoped to be able to “get things up and running this year”, but there might be a “phased approach” to introducing the new codes, such as piloting the system or gradually introducing them with different PMR providers. 

Mr Sawer's “best guess” was that the “first tranche” of PMR providers would adopt the codes before the end of this year, he said.

Minutes from a meeting held by the Department of Health’s supply chain forum in May, obtained by C+D via a freedom of information request, show pharmacy organisations such as the NPA and PSNC had expressed support for piloting the system.
 
Mr Sawer said a universal code system would “harmonise” the way all BAPWwholesalers communicated stock shortages to pharmacists. The updated codes could also be used to give pharmacists “clear information” on how to get hold of out-of-stock medicines, either from wholesalers or directly from manufacturers, he added.

“The key objective is to save [pharmacists] time, because they’re wasting time looking for medicines,” said Mr Sawer.
 
Mr Sawer initially announced the supply chain forum's plans to drastically reduce the number of codes to delegates at the Sigma Conference in Mexico last year. The “plethora of codes” used by different wholesalers were “a real bugbear and an extra hurdle for pharmacists”, he told C+D at the time.
 

How would the simplification of PMR codes for shortages help you?

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