Policy paper

Serious shortage protocols: one-year policy review

Review of the first 12 months of the serious shortage protocols (SSPs) policy for managing and mitigating medicines shortages.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 27 May 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Documents

Serious shortage protocols: one-year policy review

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Annex A: SSPs issued to date

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Annex B: organisations consulted

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Annex C: example SSP – fluoxetine 10mg tablets

ODT, 30.9 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Annex D: example SSP – Salazopyrin® EN-Tabs 500mg

ODT, 31.3 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Details

Serious shortage protocols (SSPs) are a tool for managing medicine shortages. They support patients in being able to access their medicines while also easing pressure on both pharmacy and GP contractors.

SSPs enable community pharmacists to supply medicines in accordance with the protocol rather than with a prescription, without needing to return to the prescriber.

SSPs are developed with the input of expert clinicians and are only issued with ministerial authorisation.

This review of the first 12 months of the SSP policy focuses on the policy’s effect on patient safety and the prescription medicines market.

Published 27 May 2021