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, 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.
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."
Read the full report here.