Posted on 06/19/2026 12:08:55 AM PDT by KingofZion
After the shock of being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a year ago, Pearl Bartlett has found herself facing an unexpected additional challenge: the monthly ordeal of simply locating the medication she needs to manage daily life....
"My chemist spent four weeks trying to locate the drug," says Bartlett....
Bartlett has experienced these issues not only with opicapone, but multiple Parkinson's drugs. It's left her facing periods of weeks at a time where she hasn't been able to take her medication, with dire consequences....
Sadly, Bartlett is far from alone. Indeed, she is one of many people in Britain living with serious long-term health conditions, ranging from chronic pain to hypertension, thyroid conditions and degenerative diseases, who are struggling to get hold of vital medications. Recent estimates suggest that there are around 120 drugs in short supply in the UK, ranging from propranolol, a beta blocker used to treat migraines, to medicines for blood pressure and epilepsy.
The crisis is so bad, in fact, that industry leaders this week said the current shortages are the worst GPs and pharmacists have ever seen, warning of a serious risk to patient safety.
"Our medicines market has never been so volatile, with patients and primary care colleagues at the sharp end of events outside of their control," said Olivier Picard, the chairman of the NPA
Indeed, solutions are not easy to come by with the shortages caused by issues ranging from conflict in the Middle East to the UK's relatively low budget for medicines compared with other EU countries. The former has made the supply chains of crucial ingredients more volatile, creating bottlenecks in the production lines of various medications, while the latter means that when a particular drug is in short supply, nations who are willing to pay more for it are prioritised.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
You’re a cost in socialized medicine.
I have read that the British healthcare system is the second-largest civilian employer in the world. A bureaucracy on steroids.
Might have a few more quid for such things if they hadn’t allowed barbarians through the gate.
It’s the first largest employer in the UK.
And per AI on what percentage of NHS employees actually see patients...
“Around 51% to 54% of the NHS workforce in England consists of “professionally qualified clinical staff,” which includes doctors, nurses, midwives, therapists, and allied health professionals. The remaining staff work in non-clinical roles, such as administration, management, catering, estates, and cleaning.”
We have a similar supply problem here, with many of our most common drugs coming from overseas, particularly India and China, where there are serious quality concerns. Just a few years ago, we had a shortage of antibiotics and SALINE, for gosh sakes.
Are you kidding.
Medication shortages happen all the time in the US
I believe you may be close to correct - I asked several AI’s and they used our DOD and the Chinese military as “examples”, and they aren’t actually “civilian” employers...but the NHS is Europe’s largest employer with about 1.4 million and would rank 4th if the numbers I got are right.
Walmart has about 2.1 million
Amazon has about 1.54 million
and China National Petroleum (are they really “civilian?) has about 1.45 million
My numbers may be somewhat dated. The set I cited had the Indian railway system at number one. These are public employees, not private.
the UK’s relatively low budget for medicines....
pay for it yourself
“You’re a cost in socialized medicine.”
Correct!
Which means the unavailability of medications is not a “problem”, but rather a “cost-saving measure”.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
Yeah - actual numbers are hard to get - depending on how you phrase the questions to narrow it down, you get different results....but Britain’s NHS is one of the largest employers on the planet, regardless of how they are defined.
Perhaps but they are free if you do get them
Many of these are related to pill makers getting sued like the generic maker of Colchicine
Fda closes factories
One of the more interesting shortages was how cheap generic liquid thorizine was unavailable when expensive Zyprexa became available.
Shortages are sometimes managed. Current shortages of vivance target a population that has difficulty attending to the myriad of hoops to jump to use it. Less that insurance companies have to pay.
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