Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
With demand set to grow for lateral flow tests, government needs to make an urgent call about prioritising supplies, the National Pharmacy Association said today.
Following intermittent shortages during the Christmas holiday period, there continues to be a high level of demand for lateral flow tests in pharmacies.
NPA Director of Corporate Affairs, Gareth Jones, said: "It’s easy for people to imagine that the supply problems will go away because Christmas and New Year are over. However, there will be new demand driven by people returning to work and school in the weeks ahead.
"If the government can’t guarantee enough supply to meet the demand created by their policies then there needs to be a candid conversation with the public about prioritising essential workers including health care staff.
“We want to avoid ongoing frustrations for the public and to prevent blame falling unfairly on pharmacy teams and the medicines supply chain.”
Pharmacies have distributed nearly 300 million lateral flow test kits since the start of the Pharmacy Collect scheme.