Medicines in short supply

NEARLY 600 medicines, vaccines and vital cancer treatments are in short supply – 75 of them in critical supply – exacerbated by COVID-19 panicbuying.

News Corp can reveal the shortages, which existed before the coronavirus emerged, have grown by 33 per cent in the past month alone.

Doctors are being blamed for fuelling the current crisis by bending the rules to write special “Regulation 49” prescriptions that allowed patients to stockpile six months or more worth of medicine.

This added to already-depleted stocks, brought about by a reduction in factory output in China and India and freight delays.

Australians are now being urged to go back to buying their regular monthly supply of medicine to help ease the crisis.