No creon at wholesaler!

[Wendal]

Afternoon and hope all is well.
My local pharmacy (Well pharmacy) told me they could not fill my prescription for 25000 Creon and said they it had been OOS for about 6 weeks.
Fortunately they have plenty of 10k so I have had my script changed.
Anyone else still getting issues as presumed this had been sorted given lack of posts on subject the last few weeks.
ATB

 

[martindt1606]

Afternoon and hope all is well.
My local pharmacy (Well pharmacy) told me they could not fill my prescription for 25000 Creon and said they it had been OOS for about 6 weeks.
Fortunately they have plenty of 10k so I have had my script changed.
Anyone else still getting issues as presumed this had been sorted given lack of posts on subject the last few weeks.
ATB

Neuroendocrine Cancer UK published a News Flash a couple of days ago that they had chased the manufacturer who had advised that the next batch of Creon 25000 would be delivered in to the uk today (22nd). This should mean supplies are available from Monday……however this is the NHS and NHS supply management probably means there will be a monthly shortage for years until someone new comes in and thinks why don’t we increase the order or even better have multiple deliveries per month.

 

[Wendal]

Neuroendocrine Cancer UK published a News Flash a couple of days ago that they had chased the manufacturer who had advised that the next batch of Creon 25000 would be delivered in to the uk today (22nd). This should mean supplies are available from Monday……however this is the NHS and NHS supply management probably means there will be a monthly shortage for years until someone new comes in and thinks why don’t we increase the order or even better have multiple deliveries per month.

Thanks Martin.I work in pharma so understand all the supply chain stuff but find it odd that they seem to have really struggled with 25k but have loads of stock of 10k.
Perhaps this is situation only with my local chemist but for a product that is pretty essential for some of it seems strange that there does not seem any proactive action to suggest an alternative when it became pretty clear they were struggling with supply problems for a while.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Thanks Martin.I work in pharma so understand all the supply chain stuff but find it odd that they seem to have really struggled with 25k but have loads of stock of 10k.
Perhaps this is situation only with my local chemist but for a product that is pretty essential for some of it seems strange that there does not seem any proactive action to suggest an alternative when it became pretty clear they were struggling with supply problems for a while.

I share Martin's slightly cynical perspective: there is very little proactiveness either to suggest alternatives or to keep patients informed from my (new) local town medical clinic.

About 18 days ago I raised the problem of Creon shortages and the immediate response from both my nominated pharmacy and reception at the clinic was for me to source from any of the 10 relatively local pharmacies where stock existed and arrange a prescription request accordingly. This seriously irritated me and I promptly dumped the nominated pharmacy and insisted on a Consult with someone from the Clinic's in-house Pharmacy Team. While waiting for that phone call (booked for 3 days later) I did source a further month's stock and secured that to be held for me while I got the prescription rearranged; then collected. I've also got 10k capsules added to my repeat script - in itself that addition was unnecessarily challenging; the Pharmacist wanted to replace my 1,000 x 25k capsules with 1,000 x 10k capsules and it felt a true uphill struggle to get both on the same script listing. I have eventually got both listed and recognition that I will only ask for what I need when I need it! I had to point out that these Creon capsules aren't akin to sweeties and I need the quantity I need because I have no panc'y. Even that needed confirming from my medical records before being agreed.

Regarding alternatives it took a further 3 days to be told that the nearest of the 3 alternatives in chemical content was not readily available but Pancrease was a close 2nd. I've had Pancrease before - didn't like the aftertaste much and the 25k capsules are noticeably bigger than Creon 25k capsules. But if that becomes the default solution I feel that thanks to my efforts the Clinic now have an alternative recognised for me - if that becomes necessary. What irritated was that the Pharmacist I spoke to had heard the difficulties with Creon resupply of 25k and felt comfortable in telling me there was plenty of 10k capsules around - OBLIVIOUS to the obvious impractical result which would be providing me with 25,000 capsules monthly (ie 25 cartons of 100 rather than 10 cartons monthly) !

Meanwhile as part of that dialogue on 7 Sep to get Creon organised as best as possible, I was asked to do a full prescription review; this went smoothly enough. Last week on Fri 15 Sep while I was in France I received a text asking me to follow a link for a full prescription review! On Mon 18 Sep once back in UK I got a curt reminder that I hadn't yet opened the link. Of course its all done by AI - no thinking humans involved - so little point in my getting hot under the collar. The world we live in today has got itself deeply embedded in the digital possibilities and lost sight of the practical fact that digital solutions only achieve 80% accuracy; that's a business output - the last 20% costs too much and achieves too title return. All quite alarming really.