A combination of community pharmacies integrating the medicines supply tool and the government making a “swift decision” on community pharmacist’s flexibilities will help tackle medicines shortages faster, a new report launched today by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has said.

It suggests progress can be made in addressing medicines shortages by deciding soon on what community pharmacist’s flexibilities should be, then engaging with patient medication record (PMR) system providers to support the changes.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) launched a consultation on granting pharmacists “flexibility when dispensing medicines” in September, but Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said the proposals “do not go far enough” and that it disagrees “with the proposed implementation approach”.

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Additionally, it says community pharmacy IT platforms should integrate the medicines supply tool “at the point of dispensing”, along with having “proactive updates” on medicines’ availability once the tool is integrated into GP prescribing systems.

The ‘One Year On’ report follows a previous RPS report on medicines shortages in December 2024 that looked at the causes, impact and management of medicines shortages.

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National Pharmacy Association chair Olivier Picard praised the RPS for driving the “momentum for change” as it “cannot be acceptable that medicines shortages have become a near-permanent fixture in the UK”.

He added there needs to be “clearer accountability within government to ensure progress is driven and sustained over the long term”.

Security

The new report tracks progress of its previous recommendations, where improvements can be made and concerns it still has.

As some areas of reimbursement impact on medicines shortages and timely access to them, the RPS says the community pharmacy contract needs to be reviewed to address this.

It says improvement can be made regarding more “proactive data-sharing between the NHS and manufacturers/suppliers at national level” which it hopes can combat issues related to predicting, reporting and responding to medicines shortages.

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It also recommends better system information flows concerning supply issues between manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies.

The RPS says the government needs to treat medicines shortages as a “national security issue” and appoint a senior responsible officer to “oversee the resilience of the UK’s medicines supply chain”, as outlined in a House of Lords report in February.

One recommendation also suggests expanding the eligibility of patients who travel far to collect medication to be able to claim back travel costs on the NHS healthcare travel costs scheme (HTCS).

Concerns

The RPS medicines advisory group said the changing structure of the community pharmacy sector was one of the ongoing areas of concern around medicines supply.

It said changes to purchasing patterns, such as community pharmacies “increasingly using real-time digital purchasing platforms” to buy medicines more cost effectively to prevent potential losses, need to be evaluated across the supply chain so manufacturers can improve demand forecasting.

And with community pharmacies using more barcode checking and robotics within its operations, it said the removal of barcodes in the medicines supply process puts the “efficiency gains made through automation and impact patient safety” at risk.

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It follows the RPS backing NHS England’s call for mandatory 2D barcodes on UK medicines packaging earlier this month.

Other ongoing areas of concern included how NHS reorganisation in England is creating operational challenges, the patient burden of medicines shortages, a “fragile generics market” and how global markets, tariffs and geo-politics affect the supply chain.

Progress

Pharmacies are still reporting “little or no advance warning” from manufacturers or wholesalers when medicines go into shortage, according to the report.

It says pharmacies are still under “significant pressure” as medicines shortages “remains high” and managing them “continues to be complex and time-consuming” as it can pull pharmacies away from delivering other patient care.

But it adds progress has been made as “positive collaboration” between the national medicines supply teams, the regulator and industry trade bodies show “a clear desire” to reduce the impact of medicines shortages on patients.

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It referred to Project Revive launched by NHS England (NHSE), the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Medicines UK as one of the ways it was addressing medicine shortages, with 378 “dormant” drugs identified to be restored to the supply chain.

It follows supply issues of aspirin this year, which the DH said should “return to normal over the coming weeks” back in February.

In July, the pharmacy all-party parliamentary group (APPG) published a report into medicines shortages that found 84% of pharmacists encounter “daily” shortages.