Gloucestershire's pharmacies facing medical shortages
Experts warn patients are being forced to travel from shop to shop to find their treatments amid a rise in medicine supply shortages.
Research by Community Pharmacy England has found medical shortages are becoming a daily occurrence for pharmacies. With some patients being asked to ration their medication due to supply problems.
Badham Pharmacy, who have over 20 sites across Gloucestershire and Bristol said shortages are not a new thing. Peter Badham, said: "We've had enormous problems over the last two years maybe even longer.
"We work with GPs to find alternatives but it does cause a lot of inconvenience to patients."
And this pharmacy is not alone. Findings of a survey of 6,100 pharmacies in England found nearly all (97%) of pharmacy team members said that their patients are being inconvenienced as a result of medicine supply issues. While 79% said patient health is being put at risk as a result.
At an already busy time for pharmacies, since the roll out of Pharmacy First earlier this year, their workloads are being increased again. Almost three quarters of pharmacy staff say they spend one to two hours every day trying to obtain medicine stock or alternatives.
Peter Badham, said: "It's not a good time to be spending extra time on supplying medicine, with Pharmacy First having started in January. It's creating an extra workload that we're not welcoming."
"It does cause an awful lot of inconvenience for patients and more work for pharmacy staff and GPs trying to find alternatives. I feel for patients who are not well and the extra stress on top of their medical condition is really not acceptable."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “There are around 14,000 licensed medicines and the overwhelming majority are in good supply. Supply issues can arise for a wide range of reasons and are not specific to the UK.”