Limited supply of 'Dioralyte oral rehydration sachets' expected until December

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued a medicine supply notification for Dioralyte oral rehydration sachets.

“Dioralyte oral rehydration sachets are expected to be in limited supply until late December 2022. St Mark’s solution is available as an unlicensed special and can support an uplift in demand,” said DHSC.

“Kidderminster formula is available as an unlicensed special and can support a partial uplift in demand. As an alternative to the unlicensed specials, the individual components can be purchased from community pharmacies and supermarkets or prescribed, but there have been intermittent supply issues with glucose powder.”

Diluted apple juice has been reported to be a potential alternative to electrolyte maintenance fluids in children with mild gastroenteritis and minimal dehydration.

If there is currently no listing on dm+d for the imported product for prescribers to select using their prescribing systems an EPS prescription for unlicensed St Mark’s solution cannot be issued.

DHSC said: "Where a prescriber wishes to prescribe an unlicensed import, an FP10 paper prescription should be issued as ‘ St Mark’s solution (Special Order)‘ and endorsed by the pharmacy as a non-Part VIIIB special with the following information:

• Amount dispensed over pack size used;
• Invoice price per pack size from which the order was supplied less any discount or rebate;
• Manufacturers’/importers’ MHRA licence number;
• Batch number of the product supplied;
• SP