A House of Lords committee on Wednesday (6) launched an inquiry into the causes of medicine shortages and ways to prevent them.
The cross-party Public Services Committee will assess the UK’s ability to predict and prevent medicine supply issues and consider innovative solutions to deal with the problem.
The inquiry will focus on the effectiveness of current strategies to tackle medicine supply issues in England and their resilience in the face of challenges in the procurement, supply, and distribution of medicine.
The committee will study how the Government and primary and secondary care providers monitor stock levels across different parts of the supply chain and how effective it is.
It will assess the government's ability to predict supply chain issues before they occur, and how to improve procurement policies to boost supply chain resilience.
The Committee has invited written evidence from organisations and people who work across the medical supply chain, which can be submitted by September 23.
The committee chair, Baroness Morris of Yardley, said, "We will also be holding a number of oral evidence sessions before producing a report.”
APPG report
A month ago, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pharmacy had come out with a report calling for urgent reforms to medicines supply.
It stated that shortages have become a “permanent and escalating feature” of the healthcare system and pose a threat to NHS care and patient safety.
APPG had called for a reform of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework, greater flexibility for pharmacists to substitute medicines, and an independent review of the UK medicines supply chain.
It had also pitched for a real-time system to communicate shortages to healthcare professionals.
