The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7503 p631-635
24 May 2008

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What risks can affect the supply of pharmaceuticals to the NHS?

Pharmaceuticals are a key input into healthcare treatment, so it is imperative that risks attached to the sourcing and passage of these products through to patients are identified and managed, says Liz Breen

SUMMARY

Why do we need to examine risk and its management in the supply chain? The simple answer is that it has not been done before, judging by the lack of literature on the subject.

Although risk management is a topical issue in both practice and academic circles, no research to date has investigated risks within the total pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) as pertinent to NHS pharmacy.

Such research is vital because pharmaceuticals are central to healthcare and are critical products.

Research suggests that practitioners believe that “pharmaceuticals are different; they cannot be treated like other commodities”. This is because of the high cost and long duration of research and development and the repercussions of the product not being available, hence the criticality.

Other unsupported perception-based factors that appear to make the pharmaceutical supply chain distinctive include the level of regulation in production, storage, distribution and consumption, and the complexity of the fabric of this supply chain.

It would seem, from the research findings, that there is concern about the growing number of risks within the PSC, and the lack of any co-ordinated effort to assess and manage them. This is worrying, because the purpose of the PSC is to source pharmaceuticals and materials to provide treatment for the end-user.

The research identified risks that would affect the performance of the total supply chain negatively (from raw material sourcing through to medicines dispensing). Yet, the contributors believe that there is a lack of cohesion, expertise and urgency within the supply chain to tackle such risks head on or work together to minimise them.

This article aims to highlight this issue, identifying the nature and prevalence of risk, as determined by supply chain users. It concludes that there needs to be a more structured and co-ordinated approach to risk management in the total supply chain within NHS hospital pharmacy, as opposed to the current pockets of expertise evident (as demonstrated by previous research, eg, clinical risk assessment and management).

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