, a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank has warned. A dramatic recent spike in the number of drugs that are unavailable has created serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, the NHS and patients, it found.
The UK has been struggling since last year with major shortages of drugs to treat ADHD, type 2 diabetes and epilepsy. Three ADHD drugs that were in short supply were meant to be back in normal circulation by the end of 2023 but remain hard to obtain. Paul Rees, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, which represents most of the UK’s 7,000 independently owned pharmacies, said: “Supply shortages are a real and present danger to those patients who rely on life-saving medicines for their wellbeing. Pharmacy teams have seen the problems get worse in this country over recent years, putting more patients at risk.
But Britain’s departure from the EU in 2020 has significantly aggravated the problem, laid bare the “fragility” of the country’s medicines supply networks and could lead to the situation worsening, the report said. That has forced the Department of Health and Social Care to agree to pay above the usual price for drugs that are scarce to try to ensure continuity of supply far more often than it used to.
Ministers should agree to pay more for generic medicines, which are usually much cheaper than branded ones, to help tackle shortages, Hill added.