Pharmacists, wholesalers and patients have urged the government to "show greater leadership" and implement cross-party proposals to tackle stock shortages "as a matter of urgency".

Manufacturers were the only part of the supply chain to sound a note of dissent over the all-party pharmacy group's (APPG) stock shortages report – published yesterday (May 15) – saying that it did not go far enough.

The APPG's proposal that the UK could be exempted from EU free trade law for public health reasons proved particularly popular.

PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe said the report shined "a much-needed spotlight" on stock shortages, and called for the Department of Health (DH) to respond "before anyone else gets seriously hurt". "It's our view that the DH has been too focused on the supposed constraints EU legislation has on the government, rather than looking to how we can solve the problem together through measures such as greater flexibility on quota arrangements."

Lindsey Gilpin, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's England board added: "We will be pressing the government to introduce an exemption to European law that means medicines are no longer freely traded across Europe when this threatens the health of patients," she said.

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	Martin Sawer, executive director of the British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (BAPW), backed the recommendations to set up independent third-party monitoring of medicine deliveries so the impact on patients could be assessed more clearly, and using the existing nationwide network of BAPW wholesalers to help bring emergency medicine supplies closer to pharmacies and patients.

And Mark James, managing director of Celesio UK, said he hoped health ministers would implement the recommendations "as a matter of urgency".

Mr James stressed that the problems could not be resolved without "the active involvement of the DH and a willingness by ministers to consider all options". "Ultimately, ministers are responsible for the current system, in which different supply chain stakeholders face conflicting incentives and that lies at the root of the problem," he argued.

Mark Stone, a pharmacist on Devon LPC, praised the APPG's "excellent recommendations", which he believed would make a "big difference" to the stock shortages problem.

However, manufacturers felt the APPG's recommendations did not go far enough. Stephen Whitehead, CEO of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), said: "Without the legal separation of pharmacy wholesaling and dispensing activities, industry is unable to prioritise pharmacists whose primary concern is UK patients, over those who are selling medicines abroad for a profit and causing the problems in the supply chain.

A DH spokesperson said the department would "carefully consider" the report's recommendations, but said it already had "well-established" arrangements for dealing with supply issues, although "much of this work goes unseen".

To download the APPG's report into stock shortages click here.