An exploratory investigation into how community pharmacists deal with drug shortages: interview study

This study aims to explore the experiences of community pharmacists when dealing with medicines shortages.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with practising community pharmacists in the UK. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants. The interviews were conducted online, recorded, and transcribed. Interview transcripts were analysed employing thematic analysis.

A total of 12 participants took part in the interview study. Three themes emerged from the interviews, which included power and resource, engagement and process, and scope of impact. The power and resource included a lack of pharmacist authority, lack of access to suppliers and General Practitioners (GPs) and lack of information for patients and pharmacists. The engagement and process theme included having varied pharmacist experience, a proactive and motivated pharmacist, a good relationship with GPs and an efficient process. Medicines shortages impact workloads, timely access to medicines, and the relationship of the pharmacists with the patients and GPs.

Medicines shortages continue to be an issue for community pharmacists in the UK. There are factors such as the lack of authority and information as well as restrictive access to GPs, making it challenging for pharmacists to deal with medicines shortages. However, pharmacists can navigate this by being proactive and motivated in engaging with suppliers and local GPs and having a robust process in place to manage medicines shortages effectively. These findings can be implemented in practice to support pharmacists deal with medicines shortages in the UK and worldwide.