Some 45 MPs have signed a letter calling on health secretary Wes Streeting to commission an “urgent review into the ongoing shortage of vital medications across the country”.
Published earlier this week (February 24), the letter stressed it “is crucial that the cause of this shortfall and potential solutions are understood if we are to safeguard people’s health and ensure they have their life-saving medications”.
Read more: Parliamentary group calls for pharmacists’ views on medicines shortages
MPs were joined in their call for a review by the charities Epilepsy Society, Epilepsy Action and SUDEP Action, highlighting that “there are 630,000 people in the UK with epilepsy... [and] we all have constituents whose lives have been deeply, sometimes irreversibly, damaged by the shortage of medications they need to function and live”.
It comes after a senior coroner last month raised concerns about shortages of epilepsy medication following the death of David Crompton, aged 44, who was left without his anti-epileptic medication in December and died as a result.
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“The delays experienced in getting their vital treatment have forced patients to go without their medication or switch to inadequate alternatives [and] doing so places those with epilepsy at risk of sudden, sometimes fatal, seizures,” the letter to Streeting continued.
“A review into the UK’s medicines supply chain and potential solutions is critical if we are to resolve this crisis,” it said, adding that “if action is not taken to properly understand the crisis we face, and explore potential solutions, it will worsen”.
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Lead signatory of the letter Labour MP for Lancaster and Wyre Cat Smith said that “it is vital that the health secretary takes action now before there is another tragedy”.
“One death is a death too many. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of David,” she said.
“We hope we can work together to do what is best for the health of our constituents and of the country,” the letter added, calling for a meeting with Streeting “to discuss this pressing issue”.
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Meanwhile, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock this week (February 24) wrote to the Health and Social Care Committee’s (HSCC) chair Layla Moran to provide further information on the government’s response to its pharmacy report, which was published last month.
Talking about Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs), he said that “we are committed to cutting the red tape and to better utilising the skills of pharmacists”.
“However, where a pharmacist is not a prescriber, they may not have access to all the patient information or know the reason why a patient may have been prescribed a specific product and hence switching to alternatives could introduce patient safety implications and uncertainty amongst prescribers as to what medicine their patients received,” he added.
