Your experiences of getting prescription medication

In 2021/22, over a billion prescription items were dispensed in the community in England, up 2.58% on the previous year.

People rely on prescription medication to treat and manage their conditions and keep well. Yet, our recent analysis of public feedback shows people are increasingly facing barriers to getting prescription medication.

Trends in feedback 

Analysis of public feedback from local Healthwatch and from our webform on pharmacies suggests people have been facing serious issues when trying to get prescription medication:

• Shortages of medication
• Delays in getting repeat prescriptions issued
• Shortages of staff
• Closed pharmacies.

Shortages of medication

We increasingly hear that people can't always get their prescribed medication dispensed at their usual pharmacy. People must make repeat visits to their pharmacy until the medication is back in stock or make long trips to multiple pharmacies until they find one that stocks it.  

People may also have to queue up for long periods to collect their medication. Those who need multiple medications on their prescription may have to make do with the items that pharmacists have in stock and get an IOU from the pharmacist for the medication not available.

We've heard about shortages of a wide range of medication, including hormone replacement therapy (known as HRT), medication for ADHD, painkillers, statins, heart conditions, high blood pressure and diabetes.  

People with allergies to some of the ingredients in prescription medication report being unable to get medication without any allergens. People describe the stress and the extra effort they must make to get the medicine they need to stay well.

"Have had problems for some months now getting Ozempic 1mg dose. I have had to ask my GP surgery to reissue the prescription in 0.5mg doses on several occasions and, last month, I reduced my dose to 0.5mg just to make the pen last until my pharmacy could source this. On my most recent prescription my pharmacy couldn't get the type of insulin I had been prescribed. This was referred back to the GP for a replacement but, as it had been prescribed by the hospital, they needed to refer back to my consultant.

Meanwhile, I phoned round several pharmacies and one 8 miles away had a box of 5 pens in stock. My GP practice issued a new prescription and I was able to collect this the following day. The staff in my local pharmacy are very helpful and apologetic when this happens but that doesn't change the fact that I find this very stressful when I am potentially without essential medication. I have a car and the time to chase these things up but still find it stressful to have to do this.

How much more stressful would this be for someone less able or without transport?" Story shared with Healthwatch England

Shortages of medication is an issue that is not just reported by patients but also by pharmacists themselves.

According to surveys of pharmacy owners and staff undertaken by Community Pharmacy England, an organisation that represents community pharmacists, almost all owners reported being unable to source some medicines for patients. Nearly three-quarters reported longer dispensing times for prescriptions, while nearly nine in ten (87%) of pharmacy team members worried that people's health is being put at risk due to medicine supply issues.

Delays to getting repeat prescriptions

In addition to medication shortages, people report delays in getting repeat prescriptions issued. Repeat prescriptions allow people to request a further medicine supply without having to book another GP appointment and form around two-thirds of the prescriptions issued by doctors, pharmacists and dentists.

We've heard that delays in GPs authorising repeat prescription requests and ongoing difficulties in contacting GPs by phone to request a repeat prescription add to delays in getting prescription medication that might be in short supply:

"I am a long time COPD sufferer and have a monthly prescription ordered by the chemist. My GP practice has left me over a week with no inhalers on the hottest week of the year. The pharmacist reordered as urgent and still no inhalers. I have also been without blood pressure meds for 8 days. The pharmacist did an emergency prescription this morning otherwise I would have gone to the hospital." Story shared by Healthwatch Cornwall

Lack of staff or pharmacies closed

We also hear that people cannot get their prescriptions dispensed because no pharmacist is available or because local pharmacies have closed. As a result, people have to travel further to get their medication.

"We are being advised to ask a pharmacist instead of seeing a GP or using A&E or ambulance paramedics. To achieve this there needs to be a good supporting network of pharmacies across the UK. In my local area a good independent pharmacy, which had plenty of customers, closed down during Covid. There was a busy pharmacy nearby in our local supermarket but it closed down just last month. So now, in an area of mainly elderly people, we have no local pharmacy." Story shared with Healthwatch England

As the last story indicates, the current policy recommends more significant use of pharmacy to help cut demand for GP appointments. The primary care recovery plan includes a role for pharmacists being able to treat some common and straightforward conditions, including prescribing some medication. We will be undertaking further research on pharmacy's role in improving primary care later this year.

However, nothing in the primary care recovery plan tackles issues of shortage of supply of medication. Whilst the NHS long term workforce plan commits to expand training places for pharmacists by 29%, this won't happen until 2028/29. 

At the same time, an NHS survey of pharmacy workforce shows a six per cent decrease in full-time equivalent posts in 2022 compared to 2021 and a 15% decline in the number of employed pharmacists.