Fears that children's painkillers could soon vanish from the shelves of high street pharmacies have been raised by a medical chief. According to reports, warehouses are near empty of liquid painkillers such as Calpol and chemists are struggling to find supplies.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association for Independent Multiple Pharmacies, told The Mail other products such as Lemsip and Gaviscon are scarce as well. The shortages are being blamed on difficulties with the production of raw ingredients from China and India, as well as the soaring price of glass used for the bottles.
Dr Hannbeck told The Mail: "Pharmacists are spending a lot of time trying to ensure we get drips of medicines coming through – at least one variant of each – so patients are not left completely high and dry. It's not just children's painkillers that are affected – it's a range of other very common medicines including Sterimar congestion relief nasal spray for babies, Lemsip, Gaviscon, Optrex and Senokot.
"The medicines shortages are getting worse this year. The manufacturers tell us it's to do with factory constraints, issues with the production of the raw ingredients used to make common drugs in China and India."
She added people should not panic buy, saying: "Please don't hoard these medicines – there's no need to be concerned and pharmacists are doing everything they can to ease the situation."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We know how distressing and frustrating medicine supply issues can be, but we want to assure people that we have well-established processes with an aim to prevent supply issues occurring in the first instance, and to manage or mitigate them when they occur.
"We work with a wide range of organisations operating in the UK medicine supply chain to provide advice and help ensure that patients continue to have access to safe and effective treatments."
