Key Summary
- Co-codamol 30/500mg, a painkiller, and low-dose aspirin, which is used to treat patients at risk of stroke or heart attack, are in short supply.
- CPNI wants Northern Ireland to work with the UK Government to strengthen medicines security and supply.
- Patients have been advised not to self-select alternative medicines or alter doses without professional guidance.
Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI) has warned of an imminent risk to the supply of essential medicines in Northern Ireland, which could impact patient safety.
CPNI representatives met MLAs at an All-Party Group meeting at Stormont on Tuesday (3) and pointed out that there is a shortage of many common medicines.
They cited the examples of Co-codamol 30/500mg, a painkiller, and low-dose, dissolvable aspirin, which is used to treat patients at risk of stroke or heart attack, both of which are in short supply.
The representatives said that community pharmacies may be forced to ration some medicines, potentially affecting on average 50 to 100 patients per pharmacy, so that they do not run out of stock.
When questioned by MLAs on the potential impact for Northern Ireland, CPNI confirmed that community pharmacies here are typically trying to source stock for over 100 common medicine lines in short supply.
While the current shortages are driven by global manufacturing and supply chain constraints, the CPNI stressed that they impact medicines' security and supply in Northern Ireland.
This also has direct implications to patient safety and consequential pressures for GPs, out-of-hours services and other parts of the health system.
CPNI chief executive Gerard Greene said, “Today’s discussion made clear that community pharmacy in Northern Ireland is operating under sustained and increasing pressure.
"The gap between medicine costs and reimbursement is widening, and pharmacies here are also struggling to pay medicine wholesaler bills and receive sufficient supply of many common medicines to meet patient need.
“The supply issue sees community pharmacies working intensively to source medicines, often under severe constraints. We have pharmacy teams reporting back to us daily that they are seeing growing numbers of other commonly prescribed medicines also in short supply. All of this is taking place while pharmacy teams try to support patients who are understandably keen to get the medicines they need.
“We are appealing to the public to be patient with pharmacy teams as they try to source medicines, and we are appealing once again to the minister to again prioritise support for the sector so that pharmacies can pay medicine wholesalers. This does not involve finding new funding for the sector, but rather to remove clawback which reduced the payments pharmacies received last year for medicines dispensed by £23m."
“The stability of the medicines supply chain, while it is a UK-wide issue, is of particular concern to us locally because of Northern Ireland’s small market and additional logistical costs compared to Britain."
Greene said they want the Northern Ireland Executive to work with the UK Government to strengthen medicines security and supply for Northern Ireland, "including ensuring that medicine stock is appropriately ring-fenced, so patients continue to receive the medicines they rely on.
“If this is not addressed, there is a real risk that Northern Ireland will become a lower-priority market for medicine wholesalers, with serious implications for patient safety, continuity of care and the resilience of the wider health system.”
CPNI has advised patients against self-selecting alternative medicines or altering doses without professional guidance, as this may be clinically inappropriate, and even harmful.
