Despite this evidence meeting Earl Howe's challenge to pharmacists, to prove patient harm caused by shortages, the government's underwhelming response to the C+D report is unsurprising – it has been refusing to act robustly on the problem for years.

We know it's complicated. We're not expecting a miracle overnight. But, as Essex contractor Aniruddh Patel points out, an admission that the current situation is unacceptable – rather than downplaying its impact against the evidence – would be an excellent starting point.

Celebrating a job well done

It was a huge pleasure to be involved in judging C+D's Platinum Design Awards 2014, in association with Ceuta Healthcare, the results of which were unveiled last week. Against a backdrop of continuing economic, contract and commissioning uncertainty, every one of the 20-plus longlisted entries told a cheering tale of pharmacists prepared to invest in better serving their communities.

One of the winners told at the event how she almost literally had to shake her partner into recognising that they had achieved something significant; he reflected that, like so many of his fellow pharmacists, he tended to think he was "just doing my job". Their awards success showed him she was right.

So, while a little humility is no bad thing, we could all benefit from making time to reflect on a job well done – whether it's a seven-month pharmacy transformation project or a single patient your team made a difference to today.Better still would be to share our thoughts on that success with those who helped make it happen.

Jennifer Richardson, Editor jennifer.richardson@ubm.com, @CandDJennifer

Pharmacy minister Earl Howe thinks the extent of medicines shortages is that there are "occasionally" supply problems with "some" medicines. Replace those words with "always" and "a lot of" respectively and we get closer to the reality, even if those alternatives still don't convey the grief it causes you on a daily basis.

Pharmacists don't make a huge fuss about many things. As in any sector, there are often gripes and grumbles, but pharmacists don't really do major protests (or, unlike so many other sectors providing public services, strikes); you're too busy getting on with the all-important job of patient care.

So the fact that so many of you took time out of that work to share with C+D detailed examples of stock shortages and their impact on patients – four years after the problem became a permanent feature of your workload – should have made the government sit up and take notice.

These accounts, which C+D submitted to the government as part of a report on a year-long investigation, included patients who ended up in hospital after running out of insulin and being forced to change brands.

That so many of you took the time to share with C+D examples of stock shortages and their impact on patients should have made the government take notice

The problem that's not going away

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