The government has been urged to intervene over the ‘devastating’ and ‘growing’ impact of medicines shortages across the UK.

Some 20 pharmacy and patient groups have written to health and social care secretary Wes Streeting calling for a ‘cohesive cross-government’ strategy that would help strengthen the medicines supply chain and better protect access to medicines.

The call for action is led by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and follows the publication yesterday of an RPS report into medicines shortages, which is being presented to MPs and policymakers at Westminster today.

It will be presented to the Scottish Parliament on 28 November and the Welsh Senedd on 04 December.

In particular, the letter calls for community pharmacists to be empowered 'to make appropriate substitutions to help manage shortages'.

And it says that 'a cohesive cross-government and NHS strategy across the UK to improve medicines access' is needed.

The medicines shortages strategy 'should consider actions to build supply chain resilience, support UK manufacturing, improve data connectivity, protect access to life-critical medicines, and reduce duplication across the NHS’, the letter said.

Tase Oputu, chair of RPS in England said: 'Medicine shortages can compromise care and so affect patients’ health.

‘Medicines supply issues also have a hidden cost that impacts NHS services including increasing avoidable hospital admissions.’

She added: ‘Pharmacy teams across primary and secondary care experience huge frustration and additional workload from chasing down supplies for patients.

‘Access to medicines is a fundamental right that underpins health. Patients, pharmacy teams and the NHS can wait no longer. The time for action is now.'

The RPS report suggested that medicines shortages are increasing professional tensions between pharmacy teams and other healthcare providers.

And it set out a series of solutions in which healthcare providers could work together to mitigate shortages.

It also said that community pharmacy's 'unstable economic model' was 'potentially contributing to local shortages', while 'just-in-time supply chains can exacerbate supply issues, and a lack of visibility into stock levels in primary care hampers collaboration to manage shortages effectively'.

In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said:

'This government inherited a broken NHS alongside global supply problems that continue to impact the availability of medicines.

'The majority of supply disruptions are resolved without impacting patients, but we are not complacent. That is why we are working with NHS England to strengthen resilience and improve our ability to mitigate shortages.'