Almost half of UK adults struggling to get prescription drugs amid shortages

Almost half of adults in the UK have struggled to get medicine they have been prescribed – and more people blame Brexit than anything else for the situation, research shows.

Forty-nine per cent of people said they had had trouble getting a prescription dispensed over the past two years, the period during which supply problems have increased sharply.

Drug shortages are so serious that 1 in 12 Britons were unable to find the medication they needed, despite asking a number of pharmacies.

The survey of 2,028 people representative of the population, undertaken by Opinium for the British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA), found that:

• One in 12 people (8%) have gone without a medication altogether because it was impossible to obtain.
• Thirty-one per cent found the drug they needed was out of stock at their pharmacy.
• Twenty-three per cent of pharmacies did not have enough of the medication available.

“Shortages are deeply worrying for patients’ physical health, alongside the stress of not knowing if an essential medicine will be available,” said Mark Samuels, the chief executive of the BGMA.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2024