{"id":494511,"date":"2026-02-21T10:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494511\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:54:20","slug":"uk-households-urged-to-ration-popular-painkiller-major-shortage-to-last-4-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494511\/","title":{"rendered":"UK households urged to ration popular painkiller – major shortage to last 4 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHS says only half the usual supply of prescription-strength is expected to be available until June.\"UK<\/p>\n

UK households urged to ration popular painkiller – major shortage to last 4 months<\/p>\n

UK households are being told to RATION a popular painkiller as a major shortage is predicted to last for months. The NHS says only half the usual supply of prescription-strength co-codamol is expected to be available until June.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople taking co-codamol should ration their supplies until supplies become stable in the summer,\u201d Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, which represents around 5,000 pharmacies, told The Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might be able to offer you [co-codamol] alternatives,\u201d Dr Leyla said. It comes after NHS<\/a> health boards and hospitals issued a warning over stock levels, with the medicine being prescribed over a million times a year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE New British passport rule from February 25 ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’<\/a><\/p>\n

In recent days, NHS Lanarkshire said: \u201cWe are asking all patients (apart from patients who are having treatment for cancer) to start reducing the number of tablets they take.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should do this gradually over the next few weeks and then stop completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are taking your co-codamol tablets every day, you need to start reducing your tablets now.\u201d<\/p>\n

NHS Grampian said pharmacists should \u201cuse professional judgement to prioritise stocks and quantities supplied to patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board said: \u201cWe are very mindful of the enormous disruption this may cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease do not issue large quantities and be aware of potential orders for \u2018stocking up\u2019, including those on infrequent\/when required supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a distressing shortage,\u201d Olivier Picard, Chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), previously said. \u201cWhere pharmacies have supplies, they will be doing all they can to manage them to ensure patients get the medication they need,\u201d Olivier added.<\/p>\n

Olivier added: \u201cThe government must urgently act to address a growing list of medicine shortages impacting patients and pharmacists alike, who end up at the sharp end of an increasingly difficult medicine supply system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing they could easily do to is allow pharmacists to make simple, safe substitutions to prescriptions where an item is out of stock, and save patients having to return to their GP without medication.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHS says only half the usual supply of prescription-strength is expected to be available until June. UK households…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490,3285],"class_list":["post-494511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-nhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}