Medicine shortages - A study of community pharmacies in Finland

- Medicine shortages are common in community pharmacies.
- Medicines in short supply are very commonly used medicines.
- The reasons behind the medicine shortages are rarely reported to the pharmacy.
- Medicine shortages cause problems for the pharmacies in every third case.
- Shortages cause customer dissatisfaction and increase workload of the pharmacy.

ObjectivesTo explore the frequency, the reasons behind, and the consequences of medicine shortages in Finnish community pharmacies.MethodsDuring the 27-day study period in the autumn of 2013, randomly selected pharmacies reported on medicines that were in short supply from orders made to wholesalers.ResultsAltogether 129 (66%, n = 195) pharmacies participated in the study, and the study material consisted of 3311 report forms. Of the study pharmacies, 79.8% had medicine shortages daily or almost daily. Medicines in short supply were most commonly medicines that affect the nervous system (30.8%) and the cardiovascular system (17.5%). The reason behind the shortage was reported to the pharmacies in 11.2% of the shortage cases. The medicine shortages caused problems for the pharmacies in 33.0% of the cases. In most cases (67.0%) the medicine shortages did not cause problems for the pharmacies, usually because a substitutable product was available (48.5%).ConclusionsMedicine shortages are common in Finnish community pharmacies. Medicines in short supply were commonly used medicines. The reason behind the shortage was rarely told to the pharmacies. Medicine shortages caused problems for the pharmacies in one-third of all the shortage cases. These shortages may be significant for the customers or the pharmacies, as they cause customer dissatisfaction and increase the workload of the pharmacy staff.