The Pharmacy Pressures Survey 2025: Medicines Supply Report, which is based on views shared by the owners of more than 4,300 pharmacy premises in England and 1,600 pharmacy team members, shows one in four pharmacy teams are spending more than two hours a day sourcing alternatives for their patients.
Despite the Government regularly issuing Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) for key medicines, such as antibiotics and Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy, supply issues continue to compromise patient care. The survey shows 95% of pharmacy teams said patients are still being inconvenienced by ongoing shortages, and 73% said supply issues are putting patient health at risk.
The results show no improvement in medicines supply issues since the annual Pressures Survey launched in 2022, when supply problems were often linked to factors such as Brexit, the war in Ukraine, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and wider economic instability. The latest data shows 87% of staff now face daily supply issues – up from 67% in 2022. The risk to patient health has also intensified and aggression from frustrated patients remains high, the data reveals.
Community Pharmacy England is warning that pharmacies need urgent, systemic action. It has welcomed recent Government commitments to work on supply chain resilience and is calling for reforms that strengthen resilience, give pharmacists more flexibility during shortages, and ensure fairer financial arrangements for the medicines that pharmacies supply.
Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England, said: ‘Our survey results suggest a system that is stuck at breaking point, with yet more evidence that medicine supply problems haven't disappeared. It will take sustained action to resolve this crisis and ensure patients can access the medicines they need, when and where they need them.
‘We are sharing our findings with Government and the NHS, as well as with the national media and politicians. Further reports showing the reality of the wide range of challenges that pharmacy owners and their teams are battling with every day will follow.'
Ruth Rankine, director of the Primary Care Network at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘This new survey paints a very worrying picture of the challenges patients are facing getting hold of essential medications, which could put their health at risk.
‘It also highlights the increased burden being placed on pharmacists and their staff, in terms of managing patient concerns and sourcing alternatives both of which take them away from delivering patient care. We have a highly skilled workforce within community pharmacy whose role is critical to achieving the government's ambition to shift more care closer to home, if they are enabled to work at the top of their licence.
‘Our community pharmacist members are ambitious, innovative and want to work with partners to deliver new models of care, and better support local communities. But systemic challenges around medicine supply issues need to be addressed through allocating resources to mitigate shortages, adjusting prescribing practices and coordinating with suppliers.'
In response to the report, Olivier Picard, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: ‘As this survey shows, pharmacies are at the sharp end of medicines shortages and frequently have to turn away distressed and frustrated patients.
‘It is particularly frustrating for pharmacists to be unable to meet a clear need when they have a perfectly safe and effective solution in their pharmacy already.
'It is madness to send someone back to their GP to get a prescription changed, and it risks a patient either delaying taking vital medication or forgoing it altogether, which poses a clear risk to patient safety.
‘The government must allow pharmacists - who are highly trained health care practitioners – to use their professional judgment to supply an appropriate alternative medication when the prescribed version is unavailable.'
