NHS running low on drugs
Cancer and heart patient concerns
THE NHS is facing a shortage of crucial lifesaving medication – including treatments for cancer.
A document sent to doctors from the Department of Health and Social Care listed a number of drugs the NHS is currently running out of.
They include treatments for cancer, heart conditions and epilepsy.
The 24-page document, headed “commercial-sensitive”, listed 17 new drug shortages last week.
It also identified issues with 69 different types of medication, including antibiotics for TB, diamorphine, various cancer drugs, heart condition drugs, hepatitis vaccines and anti-epilepsy drugs.
Doctors said there may have to be “a form of drug rationing”. Due to the shortages, unlicensed versions of medicines may be imported. Dr Nick Mann, a GP in Hackney, East London, said: “This situation is absolutely unprecedented. Previously, we would have one or two or three drugs that would go offline for a while, but this is on a different level. “It is going to render the day-to-day treatments that doctors provide very difficult.” The Royal Pharmaceutical Society said that “manufacturing problems, global demand and fluctuations in the exchange rate” were to blame.
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It’s unprecedented. It’s going to render the treatment doctors provide very difficult
DR NICK MANN GP IN HACKNEY, EAST LONDON, ON SHORTAGES