\n<\/p>\n
The head of the NHS in England has said he is \u201creally worried\u201d about medicine supply issues.<\/p>\n
A number of experts have raised concerns about cost implications and supply disruption linked to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
The NHS England chief executive, Jim Mackey, was asked during a phone-in on LBC Radio on Tuesday what contingency planning was in place because \u201cthe UK imports 75% of its medicine\u201d. He said: \u201cWe are really worried about this. We\u2019ve already had a couple of supply shocks in the last 12 to 18 months of key supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said a team was in place to \u201cfocus on where the risks might be through the supply chains\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked how much supply there was, he replied: \u201cIt depends what you\u2019re talking about. In every area, we\u2019ve got enough to get through for a reasonable period \u2026 so generally, a few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause things perish and it costs money to store and various other things go out of use, you can\u2019t hold years and years of supply. Generally, dependent on the product, we keep a reasonable period. Some of that is held centrally, some held locally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questioned whether, in some instances, it would be \u201cweeks\u2019 worth of supply\u201d, Mackey said: \u201cYeah, it could be days for some products.\u201d<\/p>\n
His remarks surprised drug and pharmacy organisations, which said they were not yet seeing any shortages related to the conflict.<\/p>\n
One industry source, speaking anonymously, said: \u201cWhat he was saying doesn\u2019t tally with the situation on the ground at the moment. Everyone\u2019s worried but no one is saying that stuff isn\u2019t coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry Gregg, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: \u201cWe\u2019re not currently seeing shortages of medicine directly linked to the conflict in the Middle East, but pharmacies are seeing disturbing spikes in prices, which can be an early indicator of challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Health have issued unprecedented numbers of price concessions designed to cope with price surges, which are likely exacerbated by this current situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price concessions are when the Department of Health and Social Care lets the NHS pay more than usual for certain drugs as a temporary measure to circumvent a supply problem and ensure stocks keep arriving.<\/p>\n
Some drug prices have risen recently as a result of shortages of key ingredients and disruption to manufacturing processes, including firms switching production to new factories.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, which represents manufacturers of branded medicines, said: \u201cWe are not aware of any supply issues resulting from the conflict in Iran. The region is not a significant exporter of medicines, and supply routes are flexible and can adapt to disruptions. However, we will continue to monitor this, as we do with other potential supply risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
One industry source stressed that most generic drugs, which the NHS obtains from China and India, do not pass through the strait of Hormuz, a major flashpoint in the US and Israel\u2019s war with Iran, and therefore disruption there is unlikely to have an immediate impact on supply.<\/p>\n
But another said: \u201cThe current conflict in the Middle East isn\u2019t having an impact on the supply of branded medicines into the UK. This is because relatively little medicine manufacturing takes place in the region, so the main risk is disruption to shipping routes rather than production itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHS and pharmacies are already dealing with a country-wide shortage of aspirin and co-codamol, a strong painkiller. Supplies of HRT and drugs to treat ADHD and epilepsy have also been unreliable in recent years.<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said: \u201cThere are currently no reported medicine shortages as a result of conflict in the Middle East. We continue to monitor the situation closely for any impacts on the medical supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department actively monitors emerging threats to supply resilience and has established processes in place to manage disruption across the health and social care sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of the NHS in England has said he is \u201creally worried\u201d about medicine supply issues. A number of experts have raised concerns about cost implications and supply disruption linked to the war in Iran. The NHS England chief executive, Jim Mackey, was asked during a phone-in on LBC Radio on Tuesday what contingency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[311,8015,1229,900,975],"class_list":{"0":"post-47707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-england","9":"tag-medicine","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-supplies","12":"tag-worried"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}