The UK's wholesalers have called for a "third-party monitoring and survey service" to help tackle medicines shortages.

Such a scheme needed "urgent consideration" and must be supported by the entire supply chain, the British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (BAPW) has told an MP inquiry into medicines shortages.

The submission goes on to say that although various stakeholders are working together more closely, "inefficiencies remain in the supply chain", which it said could be rebalanced by "regulatory enforcement and adjustment".

The comments came after the C+D Stock Survey 2011 found 95 per cent of pharmacists were spending over an hour a week trying to obtain drugs, with 62 per cent saying they spend more than two hours a week on the task.

BAPW executive director Martin Sawer said that the medicines supply chain in the UK had so far proven "resilient" and that patients had been "hidden from the problem". But he said action should be taken to avoid harm to patients in the future. "It is the long-term resilience that the [APPG] inquiry should address," he said.

The BAPW added that monitoring and reporting was the only way of "giving confidence back" to an otherwise "world-class" system of distribution.

Rob Darracott, chief executive of Pharmacy Voice, told C+D that it was a complex issue, but that the fundamentals of the solution were "obvious". "Enough medicines need to go into the UK system, medicines distribution needs to be flexible enough to match patient need at pharmacy level and all parties must observe law and ethics," he said. "The supply chain needs to work together with eyes firmly fixed on the needs of patients."

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