Health
Essential medicines are in dangerously short supply | Letters
A great deal has been made of the shortage of some HRT products, yet these are not the only unobtainable medications. Your report mentions a shortage of antihistamines (Boots, Superdrug and other chemists report hay fever pill shortages, 10 May). On Wednesday, I was unable to get adrenaline, which I need for an allergy. No date of when it would be accessible could be given. There is no alternative. I have been waiting for weeks for Betnovate ointment.
Ahead of me in the queue was a lady needing medication. She had been given 90 tablets (half her prescription) previously, but that was all that had been available. No more had come in and she was running out. No date of arrival could be given. I assume she had been waiting nearly four weeks.
My daughter, a breast radiologist, tells me that she cannot get hold of her preferred strength of the local anaesthetic that is used when taking biopsies.
This must be the tip of the iceberg. Without some medications, such as adrenaline, you can die. What is going on? HRT attracts attention, but so should all the other shortages.
Jenny Young
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire