Britons are facing some of the “most severe” NHS medicine shortages on record, with common painkillers, epilepsy drugs and vital medications for chronic conditions increasingly hard to obtain, health leaders have warned. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has described the situation as posing a “serious risk to patient safety”, while a survey by the organisation found that 96% of independent pharmacies believe the current disruption directly endangers patients. The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has also raised the alarm, noting that the shortages are causing widespread frustration and placing an unsustainable burden on both doctors and pharmacists.
Patient ordeal
Among the most severely affected are patients reliant on Creon, a pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) used by people with pancreatic cancer and cystic fibrosis to digest food. Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) – emergency measures introduced by the Department of Health to manage supply crises – have been in place for Creon for nearly two years, a record for the NHS. The SSP for Estradot, a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal women, has run for one-and-a-half years. Both SSPs were recently extended until 10 July.
Bryony Thomas, 48, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, a pancreatic cancer survivor, has been directly affected for the past two years. She depends on Creon for life because her pancreas no longer produces the enzymes needed to digest food. Nine months ago she was forced to ration her supplies, a practice she would still be following had she not found a way to share medication through patient groups on social media. “There was a three-month window where I couldn’t get hold of my enzymes, so I had to reduce what I was eating. You’d have a much smaller meal, you eat less protein, you eat less fat,” she said. “If I get anything down to under a month I start to panic.” Her mother-in-law now makes four-hour round trips to the only pharmacy she can find with supplies, in Crewe, Cheshire. Thomas is calling for a central distribution mechanism to pool unused Creon left by patients who have died; at present, those stocks are destroyed.
The NPA reports that 98% of pharmacies have encountered patients who visited multiple pharmacies in a single day in a desperate search for their prescription. Some patients have been forced to skip meals entirely when they cannot obtain the medication they need. Pharmacies have also struggled to source a range of commonly dispensed medicines: Ramipril, used to manage high blood pressure; low-dose aspirin; and co-codamol, a painkiller. For Ramipril 1.25mg capsules, SSP087 was issued on 22 April 2026 and later extended, limiting dispensing to one month’s supply. The shortage of co-codamol 30mg/500mg tablets, caused by manufacturing issues, was expected to last from February to June 2026, with up to half of usual volumes unavailable. Aspirin supplies have been particularly scarce: 86% of pharmacies could not supply it during the week of 13–20 January 2026, and the government placed aspirin on its export ban list to protect UK stocks. Wholesale prices have soared – a packet of 75mg dispersible tablets rose from 18p to £3.90, while the NHS reimbursement price remains £2.18, forcing pharmacies to absorb the loss.
The NPA survey also found that 83% of pharmacy teams have faced abuse or anger from patients frustrated by unavailable medicines. Pharmacists and GPs are spending increasing amounts of time sourcing scarce drugs, altering prescriptions and managing patient anxiety. Olivier Picard, a pharmacist who chairs the NPA, said: “Medicine shortages are becoming more frequent, lasting longer and causing increasing disruption for patients. These shortages are some of the most severe the UK has experienced. It is deeply distressing to find patients who have travelled from pharmacy to pharmacy to find the medicines they need without success.”
Root causes and government response
The NPA and other experts point to a combination of factors behind the crisis. The Middle East conflict has made already fragile supply chains more volatile, doubling air freight costs for the one-in-five NHS medicines that are flown in and disrupting supplies of petrochemical derivatives used in drug manufacturing. Lack of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), many sourced from China and India, and manufacturing constraints are primary drivers. The UK’s smaller medicines budget compared with other EU countries, and, in the case of HRT, changing prescribing habits, also play a part. Prices for common drugs such as paracetamol and cetirizine (used for hay fever) have risen by 20–30% since February 2026; one pharmacist reported the wholesale price of 100 paracetamol 500mg tablets jumping from 41p to £1.99 before easing to £1.09. Brexit has also been cited as an exacerbating factor.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) maintains that “the overwhelming majority of medicines licensed in the UK are in good supply” and that patients should expect their prescriptions to be available. The government has developed a “global risk register” to map supply chain vulnerabilities, mandated an eight-week buffer stock for secondary care medicines since 2022, and used Medicine Supply Notifications and the Medicines Supply Tool to inform clinicians. Export bans have been imposed on co-codamol and aspirin to prioritise UK patients. The DHSC says it is making “significant investments” in UK medicine manufacturing, including through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF), which has £520 million available to build resilience. AstraZeneca is investing £300 million in UK pharmaceutical manufacturing, and Accord is putting £45 million into its Barnstaple site for oncology and chemotherapy medicines.
Despite these efforts, the NPA and RCGP argue that more urgent action is needed. The NPA is calling on the government to convene an urgent taskforce involving medicine manufacturers, wholesalers and clinicians. It also wants legislation amended to allow pharmacists to substitute a prescribed medicine with a safe alternative when the original is unavailable – a change Picard says would ease pressure on patients. Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the RCGP, said: “Medicine shortages can be frustrating for patients, GPs and pharmacists alike, especially when patients have to endure lots of back and forth to acquire a suitable alternative … It’s essential that when shortages occur, the underlying causes are quickly identified and resolved.”
More than 1,000 GPs and pharmacists are meeting in Birmingham this weekend at a new conference organised by the NPA, where improved information sharing about medicines will be high on the agenda. Meanwhile, MPs have warned that shortages are no longer isolated incidents but a “chronic, structural challenge” that poses a systemic threat to patient care. The European Medicines Agency has noted that production capacity for Creon is limited, with high demand potentially extending shortages into 2027 – a stark illustration of a crisis that shows no sign of abating.