Janet Morrison, CEO of Community Pharmacy England, left, and pharmacist Thorrun Govind are among those calling for community pharmacists to have greater prescribing powers Cancer, epilepsy and asthma patients’ lives are being put at risk because of medicine shortages and more people could become seriously ill if the next government does not take urgent action, pharmacists have warned.
The low price of generic medicines in the UK, which make it a less attractive market for manufacturers, has also been blamed for reduced resiliency of the supply chain.Leyla Hannbeck, pharmacist and CEO of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said: “It’s an ongoing issue that is getting worse, and unfortunately, we are not seeing any steps being taken by those in position of power to do something about it.
Without access to sufficient Pert, which patients need in order to be able to eat and digest food and drink, they face restricting their diets and further health complications. “They had left over Creon and offered to send it to me, which initially I declined, saying I’ll just wait for the pharmacy to fulfil, and then they couldn’t,” she said.Community pharmacists have repeatedly called for the government and the NHS to grant them more powers to better manage patients’ prescriptions amid shortages.
She said: “Whoever is in the government, they will need to have a long-term plan or long term strategy to deal with this. That means bringing officials from manufacturers, from wholesalers, pharmacies, who are on the frontline, bring us together to talk about what issues they’re experiencing and what’s going on.”
Around 10 years ago, pharmacists were requesting higher reimbursement fees from the Department of Health via the drug tariff for around eight medicines a month that they could not afford to buy. Two years ago that figure was 49 and now it is 149, Ms Morrison said.Ms Morrison has long called for a review of the UK medicines supply chain to make sure it is “more resilient and robust”.
The Conservatives have pledged to stick with the longstanding convention of increasing annual spending on the NHS above inflation, but there are questions over other health-related plans. Labour has pledged to train “thousands more GPs” and guarantee a face-to-face appointment for people that want one.
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)
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