The number of medicines in short supply has reached a new record high of 307, with no sign of relief anytime soon.
There has been an 81% increase in medicine shortages in Ireland in the last 12 months, and a 45% increase in the last six months.
Low dose Aspirin and medication for asthma, cholesterol and blood pressure are now “severely” low in supply, according to the Medicine Shortage Index.
Pharmacist Sandra Gannon told The Pat Kenny Show the shortage is growing “exponentially week on week”.
“There's no sign of it diminishing,” she said.
“The shortages are actually longer in duration - where we used to see it for a couple of weeks, we’re now seeing that some antibiotics that were short in January are not due to come back into stock until August, September, October and some going until the winter season again.”
Critical medicine
Ms Gannon said in the current shortage, pharmacies have no choice but to reject prescriptions.
“Pharmacies will come out from behind the counter and say they can't give you your medicine, you have to go back to your doctor and get an alternative,” she said.
“It's costing the pharmacy looking for the medicine and then the GP or the hospital consultant time in reissuing an alternative.
“You've also got the criticality of some of these medicines and pharmacists will go to the ends of the earth to procure supply for patients.”
Demand
Ms Gannon said ingredients aren’t available to make enough medicine – or other countries are simply paying higher prices.
“We need to look after Irish patients and the Irish market,” she said. “It’s time we get proactive... there's been very little engagement from the Department of Health.”
Ireland needs to attract new suppliers to the market to cover the growing demand for medicine.
Doctor writing prescriptions. Image: Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo“You should at least aim for two for the smaller volume medicines and four and five for the larger volume medicines,” Ms Gannon said.
“We saw in the antibiotic shortage issue that there were a number of licenses here, but all of them all of the supply came from one plant.
“If anything happened to that singular plant, then you have a big problem on your hands.”
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