More than half of pharmacists have reported a “significant increase” in medicine shortages, with 78 per cent anticipating the situation will deteriorate further over the next year, reports Breaking News.
A survey carried out by the Irish Pharmacy Union between March and April found that 83 per cent of pharmacists are sourcing stock from other pharmacies to maintain patient care.
According to the survey, pharmacists and their staff are now spending over six hours each week managing these shortages, reports Breaking News.
Tom Murray, President of the Irish Pharmacy Union, told Newstalk that the issue is becoming more severe.
“It’s quite serious for pharmacists, but it’s more serious for patients, because at the end of the day, the patients are the people that count, and in key areas like HRT, the GLP-1 agonists for weight loss and diabetes, and adhd significantly, there are serious shortages,” he said, reports Breaking News.
“There’s approximately 400 medicines commonly used medicines in Ireland that are short at the moment,” reports Breaking News.
Speaking to Newstalk, Mr Murray also said pharmacists should be empowered to prescribe alternative treatments.
“If you go along the lines of HRT, where the patches have been routinely out of stock, a pharmacist could well easily substitute that to some of the gels, but we’re not allowed to without referring back to the practitioner, the general practitioner. If we have one penicillin that’s written on a prescription and that penicillin is out of stock, we have to refer the patient back,” he said, reports Breaking News.
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