Shortage of test strips

On Thursday (30th September) I went to my local Lloyd's chemist to pick up my prescription and they could only give me one pot of Aviva test strips - my prescription is for three pots. I went back today to pick up the rest of my prescription and was told that they had not come in - they said that Lloyd's were having trouble with their supplier and could not forecast when they would get any more. Has anybody else had this problem?

I had this problem usually when going to my local Lloyds. So in response to this, I started going to the 24 hour Boots pharmacy instead but I found that they were short of pen needles instead!

You can't win! XD

I had problems with one touch ultra strips in a similiar manner. However a new chemist opened nearer to me, I switched to them and have not had a problem since. I would consider a different chain of chemists just to see if you get the same problems. I find it hard to believe a chain the size of Lloyd's cannot get a continuous supply of strips from one of the biggest manufacturers of them !

For me, so far ite been fine and I use lloyds 50-50 with another local pharmacy.......

I only get 2 pots (100 strips) each time I go.....

I contacted Accu-Chek (who manufacture the strips) and asked if there was a problem their end and they told me that there were no problems at all. I then contacted the pharmacy at the local Morrison's supermarket who said that they had some in stock and that there were no problems with supply. Obviously the problem was confined to my local Lloyd's pharmacy. Anyway, i called in today and got the remainder of my prescription. I asked the assistant what the problem was and she said she didn't know, I then asked if it was likely to happen again and again the answer was 'Don't Know' - she seemed narked that I was asking - probably thought i was a grumpy old man. She got that right right, anyway. I'm not very impressed with Lloyd's.

Hi alan.

i seem to have the same problem with Lloyds. It's not just test strips for me though, they're just about short on anything.
I've starting using Asda pharmacy. They normally have what u want, if not it's there the next day(even though One touch Vita strips are like rocking horse poo!!!) The customer service is ten times better as well.

I have been told that last week, on the One Show (on BBC1), there was a piece about a cancer patient who was having trouble getting the drugs prescribed to treat her condition. The programme went on to say that after investigation, it was found that drug companies and wholesalers were restricting supplies to UK pharmacies because of the weakness of the Pound. They were maximising their profits by shipping more of their products to European countries - hence the shortages in the UK. I didn't see the programme myself, but it sounds feasible. On searching the BBC website, I found the following page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8516080.stm which is dated in February this year and would seem to be about the same problem. I wonder whether this was the cause of the problem I had.

ah, but Alan what they probably didn't tell you was the drugs then get imported back into the UK and sold in the UK. Its often cheaper to source branded drugs in the EU and then relabel them for the UK market. This is common practice and so drugs being restricted by the makers in the UK would not really affect the market hugely. However as I say I have had the problem as well so I'm as interested as you to know why. What we need is a mole in the manufacturers company to tell us what is really going on. Sadly I don't know anyone, does any one else ?

What a strange world we live in, Mark. So something can be manufactured in the UK, transported to the EU, relabelled for the UK and then transported back to the UK - is that what you are saying? But the Accu-Chek test strips are manufactured in Germany, so that wouldn't apply to them.

Alan, I wasn't clear enough. For example as you say Accu-chek strips are manufactured in Germany. When they are manufactured they are labelled for each market they are destined for i.e UK packs have UK leaflets and labels, Greek packs have greek labels and leaflets. We in the UK talk to the greek pharmacuetical wholesalers who can sell their strips to us for less than it costs in the UK even with the import costs. We therefore import them into the UK and open the packs, replace the leaflets and stick on an english label and then sell them to UK pharmacies. This is completely legal and normal practice. Its more likely with insulin, on many occasions my novarapid or levemir pens would have white labels stuck on them with english details rather than having the english text 'embossed' onto the pen. This tells me they have been imported. With my current pharmacy the english info is always 'embossed' onto the pens so I know they are not imported. The insulin inside is exactlythe same, its just its has been on a journey.
Given the changes in the euro etc, it is possible the trade is going in the other direction as well, the wholesalers can make money by selling
UK drugs into the rest of the EU and this could potentially cause shortages in the UK market. I wasn't aware it was happening though, my company only imports at the moment we don't export.