The roll-out of the recently-announced free HRT scheme is increasingly threatened by the ongoing shortages in HRT medicines, an industry expert said recently. The comments come as latest figures show that 333 medicines are currently out-of-stock, with 283 of these medium- to high-risk medicines.
Among the notable shortages is HRT medication, which continues to experience serious supply problems with just weeks to go to the roll-out of the new free HRT scheme recently announced by government.
The analysis was published by leading pharmaceutical company Azure Pharmaceuticals. Commenting, Sandra Gannon, Azure CEO, said: “Any new HRT programme is going to struggle to take-off if the relevant products experience limited or no availability. There is a real concern across the pharmacy community that the scale of the supply challenges with HRT is not fully appreciated.”
Azure also published another round of findings from polling it commissioned of pharmacists, carried out by Ireland Thinks. Research found that 61 per cent of community pharmacists noted increased workload as the biggest change faced by pharmacists over the past decade, with medicine shortages also impacting pharmacists and patient care.
The findings come as negotiations between pharmacy representatives and the Department of Health on the roll-out of new pharmacy powers commence.
Sixty-eight per cent of pharmacists expressed dissatisfaction over the level of support and guidance issued in response to shortages. The most common impacts of medicine shortages reported by pharmacists include increased workload (36 per cent) and delayed or interrupted patient treatment (31 per cent).
Although pharmacists are most directly impacted, patients are also affected by these issues, with 42 per cent of pharmacists reporting that patients express frustration and anger when a medicine is unavailable, and a further 36 per cent say patients express concern and anxiety.
The research findings also found that 80 per cent of Irish pharmacists have experienced verbal or physical abuse over the past year.
Commenting on the findings, Ms Gannon said: “Pharmacists are facing increasingly stressful working environments and patient presentations, compounded by medicine shortages, administrative burdens, and outdated fee models. The ongoing shortages issue is giving rise to agitation and confusion among patients, particularly as this is giving rise to increasing use of unlicensed, more expensive alternative medicines. The normalisation of unlicensed medicines is alarming. In some cases, people can’t access medicines needed for their treatment at all.
“For four years now, pharmacists have grappled with medicine shortage issues, with little meaningful consideration of how we collectively meet this challenge. Ireland’s response remains out-of-sync with other countries.”
There continues to be a rise in use of Exempt Medicinal Products. Many of these products do not contain an English translation of the original patient information leaflet, leading to potential confusion on dosages, or interactions with other medicines, foods or alcohol or allergies a patient may have.
Eighty-six per cent of pharmacists say there should be additional requirements accompanying the prescription of EMPs, such as an English-language patient information leaflets and a database verifying their origin.
