- 17 October 2019
- 4 min read
Patients experiencing serious harm and pharmacists shouted at over shortages
SubscribePatients are already experiencing serious levels of harm because of medicine shortages and delays believed to have been caused in part by Brexit uncertainty.
Lack of medicine consuming pharmacists' time
Some pharmacists are being shouted at daily and a fifth are spending at least two hours a day dealing with a lack of key medicines, a survey for the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) found.
They believe uncertainty around the shifting Brexit timetable has worsened underlying supply chain problems, with 90% of the pharmacists believing the problem has deteriorated over the past year.
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesman said there is no evidence that any shortages are linked to Brexit.
Shortages have affected more than a fifth (21%) of prescription medicines dispensed in the last three months, the professional union reported.
And 252 members, a quarter of the 1,019 who responded, said they were already aware of harm experienced by patients.
Patients being harmed by shortages of drugs
They said patients are suffering seizures, loss of blood pressure control and “severe distress and discomfort” as a result of shortages and delays of blood pressure medicine, HRT, anticoagulants to prevent strokes and anti-epileptic drugs.
When asked about the effect of a no-deal Brexit, over 81% of respondents felt that medicines shortages would get worse, with 55% believing they would get “much worse”.
Alima Batchelor, head of policy at the PDA, said: “There are many reasons for the current widespread shortages of medicines, but it is likely that the uncertainty around Brexit has played some part in the medicine shortages that we are seeing today.
“Our survey of over 1,000 front line pharmacists across the UK has found that there are significant concerns that a no-deal Brexit could make medicine shortages much worse, placing patients at the real risk of harm.
“With medicine shortages a reality now, there can be little doubt that a no-deal would make a bad situation worse.”
Currently, some patients taken to hospital for anaphylactic shock are being sent home without adrenaline auto-injectors, while others have expired devices or only one, when they are advised to always carry two.
One patient broke several bones after falling when their blood pressure was lowered too far after being switched onto a different formulation of the same drug.
And a pregnant woman who did not get another blood pressure drug, labetalol, for two days ended up in hospital with severe pregnancy induced hypertension. Another professional said they were aware of patients being “bounced around” community pharmacies before arriving at a hospital in tears as they tried to get Crohn’s medication.
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