Shipley MP tells health bosses about effect of medication shortages on local Shipley residents

Anna Dixon MP for Shipley, this week told a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee and several NHS and Department of Health and Social Care bosses about the difficulties her constituents have faced due to medication shortages.  

The Labour MP, who joined the committee in October, raised the issue after receiving numerous correspondence from residents of Shipley constituency about the challenges they have faced due to a lack of medicine availability.  

Since 2021, the UK has been facing increasing supply problems affecting medicines. Supply chains for this type of product are long, and experts have suggested that the current issues have been caused by factors such as the conflict in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increased trade frictions since Brexit.  

Anna Dixon told the hearing, which asked questions to individuals including the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer of NHS England, about specific cases from her local area, like Julie from Menston, who has been struggling to get HRT medication and others who have been unable to get their hands on ADHD and CREON supplies.  

Shortages like these can cause patients to stretch out prescriptions for longer than intended or use alternative medications.   

At the hearing, Anna Dixon MP said: “I’ve had various constituents who’ve written to me expressing their difficulties in accessing essential medicines.  

“So, Julie from Menston struggles to get her HRT medication, and other constituents are desperate because they can’t get ADHD medicine, either for themselves as adults or for their children, and Doreen couldn’t get reliable supplies CREON, and she has an enzyme disorder, so huge impacts for each of these on their quality of life.  

“I understand from data according to the NHS Business Services Authority that nationally, the proportion of HRT items affected by shortages has increased sixfold in the last year.  

“So I wonder if you could update us on what action you’re taking to secure reliable access to essential medications such as these?” 

Sir Chris Wormald KCB, the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Health and Social Care, replied: “At any one time, we are, for a variety of reasons, short of an ideal position on a number of essential drugs, the NHS uses thousands of drugs a year, and we are susceptible to a whole range of shocks to that system.  

“Normally, it’s manufacturing problems, and in some of the cases that you quote, that is the root cause.  

“We seek to secure extra supply where that is available, including in some cases paying a higher price.  

“We seek to ensure that the supply we do have is used where it can have the most impact with the people on whom the challenges are the greatest. 

“We always have to remember that there are individuals at the end of this challenge, and our message to individuals is always to go and talk to your clinician, who can discuss your individual circumstance and what is best to be done.”