FEARS PATIENTS’ LIVES AT RISK IN MEDICINE SHORTAGE

Supply chain crisis leaves pharmacists struggling to provide vital drugs

-  Hanna Geissler

A SHORTAGE of key medicines is putting the lives of patients at risk, pharmacists warn.

Many are having to visit several chemists to get prescription drugs or return to their GP for alternatives due to supply chain problems.

One pharmacist said he was “always firefighting” and more than half polled by their profession’s journal said they thought patient health had been put at risk in the past six months.

A pharmacist working in a GP practice told the journal: “Hardly a week goes by without at least one pharmacy asking us to give an alternative.

“Such requests are often not easy to navigate and can sometimes be quite dangerous. It creates a lot of stress to both patients and professionals alike.”

Another flagged issued with medicines used in end-of-life care, saying: “There was no alternative for one patient who had to deal with an additional symptom in his last days due to lack of treatment.”

A pharmacist working in a children’s hospital raised concerns about supply of nutritional products, saying: “We had to ration it, and this has potentially put patients at risk of vitamin deficiencies.”