I remember when there was no shortage of prescription medication.

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

And now it’s so difficult to get!

ADHD meds are a fucking nightmare
eye drops
HRT ( which was meant to have been sorted)

Why is this happening? 15 years ago it was unheard of.

Importing and supply issues because of leaving the EU.

That makes it worse, but certain meds are in short supply generally - some because of production issues, some because of base ingredient supply issues.

i struggled to get my insulin last month.

I’m struggling to get eye drops

But why aren’t our revered government sorting it. Or is it just OK to leave people without medication.

im sick of phoning everywhere for DD’s ADHD meds. 17 phone calls yesterday. No one even answers the phone!

Brexit.
It has made importing of medications much more difficult. Anything that needs to be refrigerated (or worse frozen) is a nightmare as delays at ports etc can result in destruction of medicines.

As much as people will say the problems are everywhere (they are) but the scale it's seen in the UK is horrific and it is mainly Brexit. EU had issues with ADHD meds but not the scale we're having and it's mostly sorted now. They have such huge buying power.

Yh I hear this is mainly the reason for the insulin situation. There's no lack of that in EU.

Brexit, for one thing.

See this article on generic medicines.
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/why-are-essential-medicines-in-deep-water/

That's worrying my son is type 3c treated as type 1 and is on novo rapid 4/5 times a day and Tresiba with evening meal
There's a national shortage of his creon though which helps digest his food .

Brexit, brexit and brexit. Blame those who voted for it so we could sell wine by the pint and decide how many bananas were in a bunch.

Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving!

Ingredient Supply issues.
Import issues
Supply hasn't caught up with demand - boomers are called boomers due to a huge increase in birth rates. They, and gen X, are prime HRT age now.

Yet there were always enough medications when ‘Boomers’ were young. This wasn’t just about HRT.

Thete are 70 medications in short supply. 10 years ago this was unheard of.

It's a global issue due to a population boom and a manufacturing defecit

Brexit is an issue but it’s not the be all and end all. There have been growing problems for many years and short termist company approaches have meant a lack of necessary investment and infrastructure.

To add to our prescription medication woes I have just been informed that there are supply issues with some prescription milks too which is a big worry when you have a family member who's sole source of nutrition comes from these milks.

Brexit (tendency of international suppliers to prioritise the larger EU market over UK, both for distribution and applying for authorisations for new products)
Also for HRT, demand has really gone up a lot in a short space of time

What is it you have against the boomers?
You are bring extremely rude on two threads about a whole generation of people.

Also societal change with HRT, I bet 20 years ago hardly any women took it. Now amongst my peer group I am more unusual that I don’t take it.

We were on a bus tour in a European city recently. The guide ribbed us for being poor English people - in Europe they still take better medical care of people than animals, he said, not like in the UK these days. There's many a true word said in jest.

My DD's been on a med for 12 years, and we never had a single problem getting it. Now suddenly it's completely out of stock everywhere.

This problem is world wide.

HRT use has at least doubled since 2017 and suppliers are having trouble keeping up.

ADHD meds are in short supply worldwide due to manufacturing issues at the two major suppiers, compounded by use of ADHD drugs having risen massively worldwide in the last 5 years.

China has also had issues supplying the precursors for the manufacturers of many medications which is reducing supplies worldwide and has forced some producer countries to implement export bans so they can supply the domestic markets first (USA/Australia).

Brexit. This was part of what the Brexiteers called 'project fear'. That and prices and eventually shortage of certain foods.

But why aren’t our revered government sorting it.

Lol, are you kidding? This government couldn't sort a pile of homogenous black socks out of the dryer.

So you're saying when the boomers were running the country everything worked and people got what they needed. These days they are mostly retired and the supply chain's gone to pot. Maybe they just did it better when they were running things than us Gen Xers with our agile, cut to the bone, just-in-time supply chains.