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A House of Lords committee has called on the Government to take wide-ranging action to secure the supply of medicines to the UK, including addressing ‘unacceptably’ poor communication between civil servants and community pharmacies. 

The public services committee’s report on medicines security, which is published today (February 4) and follows an inquiry, finds that the Department of Health and Social Care offers “little oversight or leadership” when it comes to the country’s medicine stocks and calls on policymakers to “accept that medicine security is, and should be treated as, a national security issue”.  

It found that government decision-makers are “not proactive” on protecting the supply chain, instead focusing on “reactive actions when shortages have already occurred.”

The report states: “It is unacceptable that community pharmacies and hospitals may only discover medicines shortages when they are directly affected, even where DHSC may have been aware of supply issues.”

The committee called on the DHSC to inform pharmacies and hospitals of shortages “in a more timely manner” and ensure prescribers and secondary care “have an up-to-date understanding of the current medicines supply situation and relevant guidance”. 

It added that in order to prevent possible “knock-on shortages” caused by future cohorts of prescribing pharmacists, the profession “should be given improved access to relevant sources of information to inform substitution decision-making, including relevant supply chain and patient information”.

The report also said Government should “increase the level of stock information community pharmacies share with local or national NHS bodies” and support pharmacies to use these channels, adding that this should form part of the 2026-27 community pharmacy contractual framework. 

And it said that while the current UK approach to the global medicines market has been successful at driving down prices, “this leaves little room or incentive to develop resilient supply of medicines” and results in a “fragile supply chain”. 

Other key recommendations in the report include: boosting the UK manufacture of generic drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients used by the NHS to reduce reliance on India, China and other markets; working with the EU and other international partners to “harmonise regulatory requirements”; appointing a named individual to work across Government to oversee supply chain resilience and ensure data is shared as needed; and publishing a list of “critical medicines” and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

Committee chair Baroness Morris of Yardley criticised what she described as the DHSC’s “not particularly proactive approach” and urged the Government to heed the report’s recommendations and “ensure the UK has the vital, strong, resilient medicines supply chain it needs to keep people healthy”. 

Nick Thayer, head of policy with the Company Chemists’ Association, said: “Community pharmacies buy and dispense over 1.15 billion NHS-prescribed items each year. 

“We urgently need the government to invest in both community pharmacy funding and medicine pricing to make the UK more attractive, and the supply chain more resilient.” 

Royal Pharmaceutical Society president Claire Anderson commented: “Today’s report is a stark warning about the continued impact of medicines supply issues on both patients and health professionals.

“Pharmacists and pharmacy teams are working hard every day to help patients access vital medicines, and this report highlights key measures to improve UK medicines supply chain resilience.

“We have seen some positive steps, including the consultation on enabling pharmacists to better manage medicines shortages, and the Government should not delay on implementing these changes.   

“I urge the Government to act on the committee’s recommendations.”

Related: Shortages of over 100 medicines are getting worse in Northern Ireland

Government to consult on shortage-busting switching powers for pharmacists