The number of serious shortage protocols issued to pharmacies has increased significantly in the last two years, according to an analysis by the National Pharmacy Association who urged the main political parties to make solving medicine shortages a key part of their general election manifestos.

Drawing on data by the NHS Business Services Authority, which sheds light on the increasing problem of medicines shortages, the NPA revealed 34 and 11 SSPs were issued in 2022 and 2023 respectively while five have so far been issued this year, taking the total of SSPs to 50 between 2022 and 2024. 

By comparison, 14 SSPs were issued between 2019 and 2021. Four SSPs were issued over three days in May 2024, the same number for the whole of 2020.

The data revealed SSPs have been issued for medicines used to treat all kinds of conditions such as angina, menopause symptoms, whooping cough, chest infections, contraception, depression, epilepsy, thyroid problems and anaphylaxis.

Some SSPs stay in place for months and in one case, an SSP for Fluoxetine 10mg tablets lasted more than three years, from March 12, 2020 to March 31, 2023. 

The NPA called on the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats to make “the alarming growth in medicine shortages that has blighted patients and pharmacies over the last few years” a key part of their general election manifestos.

The NPA said shortages were caused by a variety of factors, including changes in global demand, price and exchange rate fluctuations, manufacturing problems and the UK supply chain structure which it said was “grossly underfunded” compared with other Western nations.

NPA: Growing shortages heap pressure on stretched pharmacies

Insisting “growing medicine shortages” are continuing to heap pressure on “already stretched local community pharmacy teams,” NPA chief executive Paul Rees said: “The current funding crisis, which has seen support for pharmacies fall by 40 per cent over the last decade in real terms, is a key issue in driving these appalling shortages.

“The national warnings are only issued when shortages are at their most acute, with this revealing just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the challenges facing pharmacies and their patients.

“Pharmacists will always help patients get alternative medication, when possible, but they face continual struggles obtaining supply across an ever-changing range of conditions, from diabetes to ADHD and epilepsy.”

Rees said pharmacists were spending hours each day chasing stock and have often been forced to turn patients away because they have been unable to obtain medicines.

Urging the three main parties to focus their election campaigns on medicines shortages, Rees said: “We need these shortages tackled as a matter of urgency and deliver a new funding deal that properly funds pharmacy to pay for the medicines our patient need.”