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Pharmacy teams “continue to feel the impact of medicines shortages” one year on from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS’s) ‘Medicines shortages: solutions for empty shelves’ report.
In a new report — ‘Medicines shortages: one year on’, published on 24 March 2026 — the RPS said “the burden of managing medicines shortages for community pharmacies, general practice and hospitals remain unsustainably high”.
While some evidence submitted to the House of Lords Inquiry into Medicines Security, which closed on 23 September 2025, suggested that national shortages may have reduced over 2025, the RPS report noted that there had already been “significant medicines shortages” in 2026, including common medicines such as aspirin, co-codamol and ramipril.
However, the RPS has welcomed the August 2025 publication of a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England policy paper, which “set out new and ongoing work to improve shortages management and strengthen medicines supply chain resilience” and “represents some aspects of a national strategy”.
However, it said: “With the abolition of NHS England and its merger with [the] DHSC, alongside cuts to integrated care boards, this policy direction must now be backed by national leadership and investment.
“Whilst there is a clear commitment from [the] DHSC and industry trade bodies to work together to encourage early reporting on medicines shortages and discontinuations, front-line pharmacy teams continue to report instances of medicines going into shortage with little or no advance warning from manufacturers or wholesalers,” the report added.
A spokesperson for the DHSC, which was represented on the advisory board that contributed to the latest RPS report, said: “The vast majority of the UK’s licensed medicines are in good supply and to make sure this remains the case, we are investing more in the domestic medicine manufacturing industry.
“We are strengthening the resilience of our medicine supply by offering financial incentives to manufacture more medicines — and are also actively engaging with partner countries to bolster supply chains — protecting NHS services and patients.”
Reviewing progress made in the recommendations set out in the original report, the Society highlighted initiatives such as Project Revive, a collaboration between NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Medicines UK, aimed to encourage manufacturers to relaunch dormant medicines that already have MHRA-approved licences.
The RPS also recommended that a “swift decision” on community pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines would speed up progress in addressing shortages and community pharmacy contract negotiations in England should cover “reimbursement elements that can affect timely access to medicines”.
Claire Anderson, president of the RPS, commented: “While there have been some very positive steps since our report, patients, pharmacy teams and the NHS continue to feel the impact of medicines shortages.”
“[There has] been progress across some of the recommendations, including positive collaboration between government, regulators, the NHS and industry,” she added.
“A national strategy must be supported by senior leaders in government and backed with continued investment. In a global market, shaped by geopolitical uncertainty and competing national interests, the government must take decisive steps to protect medicines supply.”
Jacob Lant, chief executive of National Voices, a coalition of health and social care charities in England, said: “The spirit of a resilient supply chain embraces the importance of protecting patients.
“[The report] highlighted ongoing shortages of commonly prescribed medicines, which heighten anxieties in an already fragile system, as patients often do not know when or if their medicine will be available.
“Beyond fortifying supply chains, we need a system that ensures shortages do not force clinicians to make second-best choices or leave patients feeling helpless because of them.”
