BENDIGO pharmacists have warned they are struggling to fill some prescriptions, as they face ongoing medication shortages.
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At no point have customers been unable to access some form of the medication needed, but a process of finding alternatives can be confusing for patients and waste time for pharmacists and doctors, pharmacists say.
It comes as a senate committee heard concerns about Australia's "fragile" dependence on overseas medicine manufacturing.
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Vanstan's Pharmacy pharmacist Daniel Buttolph said stock shortages had been going on since before COVID-19, but the pandemic had made the problem worse.
Mr Buttolph said product shortages went in cycles, more often affecting the less expensive generic brands, meaning consumers were forced to pay the extra cost of brand name products.
He said blood pressure medication, antidepressants and diabetes medication had all been affected.
Mr Buttolph said the pharmacy had done its best to continue customers' medication supply, ringing around other businesses to see if they had excess stock.
As a last resort, they had infrequently had to buy medication from the hospital or ask a doctor to change a prescription, he said.
At no point had customers been unable to access medication from any source, Mr Buttolph said.
He said customers were very understanding, but it made it difficult for them and pharmacists.
Amcal White Hills pharmacist Sanjay Jhaveri said COVID-19 had exacerbated an existing problem with medication shortages.
He named blood pressure medication, antidepressants and diabetes drugs as among the medications affected.
Mr Jhaveri said the pharmacy had been giving people different brands of the same medication, or consulting their doctors to ask about alternative medications.
He said changing medication brands could be confusing, especially for older customers, potentially leading to overdoses. He said a different brand could also mean people had to pay more than they could afford.
Mr Jhaveri said shortages also meant pharmacists wasted a lot of their time researching what brands were available and general practitioners' time by having to contact them to ask about changing prescriptions.
At Vanstan's Pharmacy Mr Buttholph said manufacturers hadn't explained the reason behind shortages when asked, instead just saying it was a supply and demand issue from overseas.
He said a lot of the products were imported and it appeared to be difficult to get stock into the country.
A Department of Health spokesperson said medicine shortages could occur for a number of reasons, as supply chains were complex global systems.
They said the Department of Health had taken strong action to manage problems with medicine supply to ensure doctors, patients and pharmacists had up to date information about shortages.
They said the Medicine Shortages Working Party - with pharmaceutical, wholesale and health representatives - helped the department to identify supply concerns and develop management or mitigation strategies.
The Therapeutic Goods Association monitors shortages of all prescription and some over the counter medications.
An ongoing senate committee has heard concerns about Australia's "fragile" dependence on overseas medicine manufacturing, after it was convened in April 2020 to investigate the federal government's response to the pandemic.
One submission to the inquiry, made by independent body Integrated Economic Research - Australia, said the country imported more than 90 per cent of its medicines and was "vulnerable" to supply-chain disruptions.
- With Catie McLeod
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