Shortage Of Tablets

I found out today that there's a shortage of Montelukast 10 mg where I live, dunno if this is the case for all here, but hopefully I'll be able to get 5mg & take 2 instead of 1 10mg 🤞

[Hidden]

My pharmacist told me today there's a pack waiting for me so the shortage doesn't seem to be everywhere.

There's a useful website for checking drug shortages sps.nhs.uk/

[Troilus]

I take 10mg but my last prescription was 2 packs of 5mg. I’m in the North East

[Hidden in reply to Troilus]

I'm in the south-east! There was a major shortage of ranitidine (for reflux) at the beginning of the year - in fact it was withdrawn for a couple of months, but now it's available again. These things come & go

[dkw80 in reply to Hidden]

I’ve heard from people there is a shortage in the east but I thankfully got a tray before that started.

[Poobah]

I've have been told by Boots pharmacy on a couple of occasions that Ventolin was out of stock with the manufacturer & they offered me a generic version, which I declined. I checked with GSK and was told there was no problem. Boots were able to give me the GSK version.

I've checked sps.nhs.uk and there is no record of a shortage of Montelukast.

I wonder if the wholesaler is the cause of the problem? Our pharmacies depend on the wholesalers to provide the meds but they operate on a free market basis so they will sell to the highest bidder. Costs can escalate too so pharmacies then have to hunt round for a less expensive source. So we have social health care with limited budgets vs a free market who are motivated by profit.

This issue has been getting worse in recent years according to chemist and drug.co.uk

[Hidden in reply to Poobah]

I dunno, but thankfully managed to get some 5 mg to take instead, so ain't got a clue as to what's going on, but they said that they'll keep on trying to get it in for me

[Hidden]

I did a bit of research and apparently it should be available within a week. But I’m afraid I can’t find the link...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for that, no worries about not being able to find the link. Hoping they can get the rest of another tablet in for me as well 🤞

[Echoblue]

My husband picked up my repeat prescription fulfilled for Montelukast on Friday ok if that helps reassure you?

[Nutzs47]

My chemist is experiencing difficulty in getting orders not only of montelukast but other meds too and asked me too ring before I went to pick it up just to make sure it had arrived .It took almost a week to arrive but fortunately my drs prescribe me 3 mths supply at a time so I still had a pkt left .

[Hidden in reply to Nutzs47]

Thanks both of you, my husband got my tablets today & to my surprise there was the 10 mg in there as well, so gonna keep the 5mg as a back up just incase