Patients face drug shortages and delays to prescriptions, pharmacies warn
Scarcity of van drivers means that medication orders are at risk of arriving late or not at all
PATIENTS can expect delays to their prescriptions and shortages of over the counter drugs because of a lack of van drivers, with the problem expected to get worse as winter drives up demand, pharmacists have warned.
Pharmacies have told The Sunday Telegraph that orders are either arriving late or not at all, without any warning. Earlier this month, one major supplier of medications had to temporarily suspend deliveries of non-urgent products because of distribution problems.
The shortage of van drivers is being caused by a combination of factors, including the wider scarcity of labour in the economy, drivers having to selfisolate because of Covid-19 and a recent change in the rules on freelancing.
Martin Hewitson runs an independent pharmacy in Dorset and is a former board member of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).
He told The Sunday Telegraph: “It’s not happening every day, but once, twice, three times a week we’re having disruption to wholesale deliveries. Medicines which we were expecting end up not arriving, often with no explanation.”
Pharmacies rarely hold large stocks of drugs, with thousands of different medicines available and customers often requiring a variety of dosages and formulations.
“Pharmacies are a classic just-in-time supply chain,” said Mr Hewitson “there’s never huge amounts of surplus stock in the supply chain”.
Dimple Bhatia, who runs the Tollesbury pharmacy in rural east Essex, said the disruption was hitting patients and costing pharmacies money.
“We don’t know if we’re getting stock or not. We’ve got urgent medicines to give to patients so we reorder it and then we get two lots in, with one turning up three days late. It’s an admin burden having to return it, and if we return too much we get penalised. The whole thing is a shambles really.”
Pharmacists said they weren’t turning patients away but were instead having to phone around other local pharmacies or ask GPs to write alternative prescriptions. “It can damage our reputation because people don’t understand the bigger picture,” said Mr Bhatia.
Pharmacies were already under intense pressure, having taken on extra burdens due to the pandemic. “We’re providing flu jabs, distributing lateral flow tests, we’ll be starting Covid booster shots next month and we’re providing advice because GP surgeries still haven’t got their doors open and so people are turning to their pharma
‘Medicines which we were expecting end up not arriving, often with no explanation’
cies for everything,” Mr Bhatia said.
Mr Hewitson told The Telegraph: “It’s worrying [patients], if nothing else.
An NPA spokesman told The Telegraph: “We are aware that deliveries to some pharmacies have been reduced …. Whenever supply problems occur, pharmacists work together, with each other and local GPs, to get people the medicines they need.”
Steve Anderson, the UK managing director of Phoenix Medical, one of the UK’s big three suppliers, admitted there was disruption to deliveries but said the problem was affecting the whole sector and was part of wider disruption to the UK economy. He blamed a difficult labour market, Covid-related absences and a change to rules on freelancing. “If you put these two or three factors together, you’ve got a perfect storm really,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
A government spokesperson said: “We are aware of concerns and are taking steps to support businesses and stakeholders, including streamlining the process for new HGV drivers and increasing the number of driving tests.”