COMMON medicines including lifesaving epi-pens are in short supply and doctors and chemists are wasting time chasing suppliers, a prominent pharmacist has warned.

Oliver Picard, a board member of the National Pharmacy Association, told GB News that medicines which are in shorty supply include the adrenaline pens, palindromic acid, which is a drug used to treat osteoporosis that many care home patients rely on, and anti-depressants.

He told GB News: “In recent years we have seen more and more medicine shortages and therefore pharmacists are now spending more and more time trying to source medicine for the patient.

“Ultimately what this means is that patients have delays in getting the medicines. They can also experience delays in ordering the prescriptions, it wastes doctors’ time, it wastes pharmacists’ time.

“We’re now talking about common medicines, medicines that many elderly patients take, the vulnerable take – antidepressants, painkillers, HRT medication.

“We’ve heard about it, and it’s making the lives of many patients an absolute misery.”

Speaking in an interview with Mark Longhurst and Ellie Costello on GB News, he said: “There will be a combination of factors. It could just be an increase in world demand for a product, it could be seasonal, it could also be some manufacturing issues, which means that there may be delay in importing the medication.

“Manufacturing [firms] from abroad that are a let down and therefore create more delays. It’s not Brexit on its own, not COVID on its own, but a combination of factors.

“What happens is it’s often the community pharmacies that are on the frontline…as a pharmacist myself, I will spend perhaps an hour every day or every night trying to choose the medicine for the patient for medicine that we’re struggling to get.”

On the types of treatments in short supply, he said: “Insulin is a good example but a few months ago, we had a problem with adrenaline pen – that’s a life-saving medicine.

“If you get stung by a bee and you’ve not got your EpiPen to hand because there’s a shortage of EpiPen or adrenaline then potentially your life is in danger.

“These are really serious matters and we’re calling on the Government to change the law…we are able to make substitutions and whilst there are some protocols that are being introduced to substitute medicine there is more that could be done by the Government in order to ease the pressure on medicine supplies.”

He added: “We supply a couple of nursing homes with elderly patients and they take a very common drug for osteoporosis called palindromic acid, which we haven’t been able to get for a number of weeks, maybe three weeks or so.

“We have seen recently some antidepressant medications that have also gone short in the market or the price shooting up for unknown reasons and it puts pressure on the supply of medicine.

“Patients are experiencing delays and if you’re on an antidepressant or if you have mental health issues and suddenly you can’t take your medication, then really the side effects of withdrawing for that medication alone are unpleasant.”

Mr Picard said: “There are things that the government needs to do. For example, if I don’t have a medicine but my competitor pharmacy down the road has the medicine currently, the law prevents me from swapping medicines…

“The Government could allow medicine sharing between community pharmacies, that would be the first thing they need to do.”