Management information on medicines supply issue notifications
Published 12 September 2024
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Data on the total number of monthly medicine supply issue notifications in the UK, reported to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). This release is published as management information, in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, to improve transparency and support the publication of the Darzi review on 12 September 2024. The Darzi review is the independent investigation of the National Health Service in England, led by Lord Darzi.
Background
Marketing authorisation holders (MAHs) have a responsibility, under the Health Service Products (Provision and Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018, to report potential supply issues and discontinuations to DHSC at least 6 months in advance or as soon as reasonably practicable. The discontinuations and shortages (DaSH) portal was established in October 2020 to support them to meet their obligations.
You can find information on these regulations and the scope of reporting in the guidance Reporting requirements for medicine shortages and discontinuations.
Data
Table 1 shows the number of medicine supply issue notifications received by DHSC since the portal became operational in October 2020. Reporting requirements cover the UK medicines market.
Just over 5,600 notifications have been reported to DHSC since October 2020, with around 1,600 in both 2022 and 2023.
Table 1: medicine supply issue notifications reported to DHSC, monthly
| Month | Number of potential supply issue notifications |
|---|---|
| October 2020 | 182 |
| November 2020 | 134 |
| December 2020 | 88 |
| January 2021 | 89 |
| February 2021 | 67 |
| March 2021 | 62 |
| April 2021 | 54 |
| May 2021 | 64 |
| June 2021 | 125 |
| July 2021 | 61 |
| August 2021 | 101 |
| September 2021 | 90 |
| October 2021 | 76 |
| November 2021 | 99 |
| December 2021 | 101 |
| January 2022 | 114 |
| February 2022 | 131 |
| March 2022 | 70 |
| April 2022 | 95 |
| May 2022 | 118 |
| June 2022 | 137 |
| July 2022 | 205 |
| August 2022 | 137 |
| September 2022 | 182 |
| October 2022 | 128 |
| November 2022 | 179 |
| December 2022 | 112 |
| January 2023 | 168 |
| February 2023 | 128 |
| March 2023 | 136 |
| April 2023 | 115 |
| May 2023 | 115 |
| June 2023 | 130 |
| July 2023 | 130 |
| August 2023 | 160 |
| September 2023 | 114 |
| October 2023 | 128 |
| November 2023 | 169 |
| December 2023 | 136 |
| January 2024 | 158 |
| February 2024 | 283 |
| March 2024 | 150 |
| April 2024 | 106 |
| May 2024 | 182 |
| June 2024 | 134 |
Methodology and quality note
Data source and coverage
The data is sourced from the DaSH portal and is a count of supply issue notifications by the date they were added to the portal by the MAHs.
Data is monthly from October 2020 to June 2024. Revisions to historical data will not be made. Data before October 2020 is not recorded.
Data captures all supply notifications for the UK as MAHs report on supply for the UK market.
Notifications are reported at an individual medicine level by the market authorisation holder (for example ‘MAH#1, Paracetamol capsules 500mg’).
MAHs can notify DHSC multiple times if the situation doesn’t improve, therefore there may be multiple notifications of supply issues with a single product.
Key data caveats
Awareness of the DaSH portal has increased across the industry since it was introduced in October 2020 and reporting behaviour varies across the MAHs. This means that underreporting and overreporting will exist in the data.
The data includes notifications of both potential and confirmed supply issues. Given established supply issue management processes in place within DHSC and NHS England, not all supply issue notifications will result in an actual supply issue or shortage, or have an impact on patients.
If you have any questions in relation to these statistics, please contact statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.