Pharmac is good at getting bargain prices from suppliers, but that is creating a "fragile'' supply chain, a Palmerston pharmacist frustrated by ongoing medicine shortages says.
Waihemo Pharmacy owner Adrian Graamans had only one of four strength types of the "very basic'' blood pressure drug Metoprolol when he was contacted last week.
"We have not been able supply about 20 people last week with their required strength.
"This requires halving or doubling available strengths to achieve the needed dose, and is confusing for patients.''
Mr Graamans also had supply issues with anti-inflammation drug Brufen, antibiotic cream Bactroban, and a nutritional supplement for older people.
Last month, he had been unable to supply a fully funded asthma inhaler, and patients had to pay a small charge for another brand.
Migraine relief injection Sumatriptan had been unavailable for four months, and patients were now using a different medicine, which created paperwork and expense for pharmacists.
Pharmac's purchasing model favoured single suppliers.
"They appear to do this primarily on price alone. Cheap is good. But this is where the squeeze starts, as that supplier often has little margin to invest in other important things like a decent buffer in their stock holdings,'' Mr Graamans said.
Antidote managing director Lorealle Lam confirmed that drug shortages were a major issue in the company's six Dunedin pharmacies.
"It definitely has an impact on us. When scripts come through we're spending all that time explaining to the patient, and the patients get cross with us.''
There had always been drug shortages, but more recently it had affected high-volume common medicines, Ms Lam said.
"For medications that are used a lot more widely [Pharmac] just need to make sure there's more supply in the country all the time.''
Pharmacists had to ration some medicines, meaning sometimes patients had to come in more regularly to pick up their scripts, she said.
Pharmac director of operations Sarah Fitt said the drug-buying agency had processes in place to deal with supply risks.
"There are a number of factors than can change the demand and supply of medicines internationally.
"For example, manufacturing issues, which have caused the Metoprolol stock issues, epidemics, natural disasters, and regulatory rule changes.
"Many of these factors are outside of the suppliers' control, but we try to reduce the risk of out of stocks occurring and where they are likely, reduce the impact.''
Pharmac worked hard to ensure alternatives were available when drugs were out of stock, Ms Fitt said in a statement.
