The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has urged community pharmacy teams to report any diffciluties in relation to obtaining medicine stocks due to drug quota restrictions during Covid-19.
The PSNC dispensing and supply team said it was aware that drug quota allocations applied by manufacturers and wholesalers were causing an increasing problem for many community pharmacies.
PSNC said: “Pharmacy contractors are reporting difficulties in sourcing stock of many products and are having to spend an inconsiderable amount of time and staff resources daily to obtain supplies, often to no avail.”
The pharmacy negotiator added that following the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation has worsened with reports indicating that quota restrictions are being applied to more drugs and any existing drug quota allocations being reduced or often set to zero by wholesalers.
PSNC said: “We have updated our reporting form to allow pharmacy teams to report quota issues, which supports our representation of issues in the supply chain. The information gathered through the form may be shared with DHSC, HDA, ABPI and the respective manufacturers/wholesalers of the drug(s), where appropriate, to help with investigation of the reported quota issue(s).”
