Antibiotics supply issue GP’s and Pharmacists should be working together to help – Previously this year we saw a shortage of HRT medication and now pharmacies are facing shortages of common antibiotics such as Amoxicillin.
Pharmacist and England chair of RPS – Thorrun Govind has urged pharmacists and GPs to work more collaboratively to ensure patients get access to antibiotics with ease and quickly. They can do this by sharing information of which formulations are currently in stock and update one another when things become out of stock. Furthermore, local pharmacies can liaise with each other and swap stock around to fulfil prescriptions for patients. Pharmacists are also well equipped to advise of alternative formulations that can be prescribed if they are struggling to get stock.
Another useful step would be for pharmacists to check the date on the prescription being presented and confirm if the antibiotic is still required (you will be surprised of how many prescriptions are presented to the pharmacy weeks or even months after the GP had issued them).
GP’s can also supply antibiotics on a paper prescription instead of an electronic format which becomes nominated to one pharmacy. A paper prescription is much more easily dispensable at a pharmacy that has the stock and the patient doesn’t get tied to the one nominated pharmacy who may not have stock.
The recent concerns of Strep A cases may lead to GP’s prescribing more antibiotics than normal will also have an impact on the supply issues as demand increases.
Although generally pharmacist and GPs have ways of working closely to resolve supply issues, pharmacists do require better access to patient clinical notes and the power to change prescriptions (within reason and competence) to enable the patients to access the medicines more efficiently. This could be changing the formulation, the strength and amending the dosage accordingly or an alternative completely if agreed with the GP.
Everyone involved in the supply chain must also take responsibility to ensure the demand is met and the supply chain isn’t affected whereby patients are left without medicines. Furthermore, I think GP’s and pharmacists both would benefit from clearer market information proactively from supply teams to ensure they can plan ahead of any upcoming shortages. This could prevent the delays caused in trying to prescribe alternatives and spend time sourcing stock from different pharmacies. Unfortunately, this time of year does not help with many more infections being presented and a greater percentage of the population requiring antibiotics treatment.