More than 5,600 drug shortages have been reported on the Department of Health’s Discontinuations and Shortages Portal by suppliers since October 2022, and the number of reported shortages is creeping up.

The figures are revealed in the Technical Annexe to Lord Darzi’s report on the state of the NHS in England. In the six months to June this year there were over 1,000 notifications, compared to around 1,600 a year for 2022 and 2023.

The Discontinuations and Shortages Portal (DaSH) was introduced by the DHSC in October 2020 to record the number of potential UK medicine supply issues. Notifications are reported at an individual medicine level by the market authorisation holder. 

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/management-information-on-medicines-supply-issue-notifications/management-information-on-medicines-supply-issue-notifications

The Darzi Report notes that because reporting behaviour varies by MA holder, underreporting and overreporting exists in the data. Not all supply issue notifications will result in an actual medicine shortage or cause impact to patients. MA holders can notify DaSH multiple times if the situation doesn’t improve, therefore there may be multiple notifications for one1 product supply issue. 

Another table in the Technical Annexe shows the walking distance to a pharmacy for all populations in England, as of 31 December 2023. The headline figure is that over 55 per cent of the population live within a half a mile walk to their nearest pharmacy.

Source: South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW CSU) and DHSC Analysis of postcode-level walking distance to the closest pharmacy (https://postcode-pharmacy-dhsc-nhsgisscw.hub.arcgis.com/)

“Access on average remains reasonable across England with 85.2 per cent of patients living within a 1 mile walk of a pharmacy,” the Darzi report comments. “As the crow flies, 93.2 per cent of patients living in areas of highest deprivation live within 1 mile of a pharmacy compared to 71.2 per cent in areas of the lowest deprivation, reinforcing the pharmacy inverse care law.”