APPG on Pharmacy: A year on, medicines shortages are still being managed, not prevented

15th October 2026

Follow-up report urges Government to publish long-overdue response on pharmacist flexibilities as patients and pharmacies continue to bear the cost

One year after its inquiry into medicines shortages in England, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pharmacy has found that patients are still facing delays and disrupted treatment, and that the NHS remains far better at responding to shortages than at preventing them.

The Group's follow-up report, published today, draws on evidence from the Department of Health and Social Care, manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacy bodies and patient organisations. It credits real progress over the past year, including closer collaboration across the supply chain and initiatives such as Project Revive to bring at-risk medicines back to the UK market. But it concludes that national activity has not yet translated into a better experience for patients or pharmacy teams, and that most of the structural problems identified in 2025 remain.

Shortages of ADHD medicines were highlighted as a clear example, with some patients facing long waits simply to have their treatment reviewed when their usual medicine is unavailable.

The report singles out one overdue decision. The Government consulted last year on allowing pharmacists to supply a different strength or formulation of the same medicine when the prescribed version is out of stock. That consultation closed in December 2025. Ten months on, the Government has still not published its response.

The APPG also warns that pharmacies are acting as the system's shock absorber without being resourced for it: teams spend significant time every week sourcing medicines and finding alternatives, and are frequently buying medicines for more than the NHS reimburses them. The Group's conclusions echo those of the House of Lords Public Services Committee, which has also called for medicines security to be treated as a national priority rather than a reactive operational problem.

Sadik Al-Hassan MP, Chair of the APPG on Pharmacy and a pharmacist for nearly two decades before entering Parliament, said:

"There has been welcome progress, and medicines shortages are now rightly seen as a national, system-wide challenge. But for the patient waiting at the counter and the pharmacist on the phone trying to find stock, too little has changed. We cannot allow this to become the new normal.

"The Government has had the pharmacist flexibilities consultation on its desk since December. Publishing that response and getting on with implementation is the single quickest thing it could do to help patients now.

"More broadly, the focus has to shift from managing shortages to preventing them. The test of success is not how many initiatives are announced, but whether patients face fewer avoidable disruptions, pharmacy teams spend less time firefighting, and the system is better able to see trouble coming."

The report sets out five priorities for the Government, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England:

1. Implement pharmacist flexibilities, publish the consultation response and bring forward the changes without delay.

2. Improve visibility of shortages and available stock across community pharmacy, hospitals and general practice, including at the point of prescribing.

3. Strengthen forecasting, data sharing and supply-chain intelligence so risks are identified before they become shortages.

4. Build resilience into pricing, reimbursement and procurement, and measure it — review reimbursement as part of Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework reform and set clear indicators of progress.

5. Treat medicines security as a strategic national priority, backed by sustained action across Government, the NHS and industry.

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