{"id":409270,"date":"2026-02-05T12:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409270\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:38:09","slug":"ferry-cancellations-create-bottleneck-on-medication-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409270\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferry cancellations create bottleneck on medication supply"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>RECENT disruption to the lifeline ferry services is having an impact on the supply of medication, particularly for those with an immediate clinical risk.<\/p>\n<p>NHS Shetland told Shetland News that \u201curgent and critical medicines continue to be prioritised\u201d adding that services were actively managing the situation \u201cto minimise impact on patient care\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Local pharmacies normally receive routine stock via the daily ferry sailings to Shetland, but supplies are running low in some cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPharmacies are contacting anyone affected directly and are working with local health centre teams where there is any immediate clinical risk from medicines not being available as planned,\u201d a spokesperson for NHS Shetland said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll pharmacies, including the hospital pharmacy, hold stock to manage short-term disruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere a medicine is clinically urgent, established arrangements allow medicines to be transported by air. These are used when required.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The period of continuous and relentless south easterly gales is set to come to an end as of tomorrow (Friday).<\/p>\n<p>And following two days of cancellations the NorthLink ferry Hrossey will heading north from Aberdeen tonight (Thursday), no doubt with some urgent supplies of medication on board.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, recent ferry cancellations have had \u201cno impact\u201d on urgent patient travel, the health board reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere necessary, NHS Shetland has been able to arrange flights to ensure patients can still attend medical appointments off island,\u201d the NHS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor non\u2011urgent appointments, patients have been offered the option to travel by air or to reschedule their appointments to a later date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<p>Removal of third-party ads;<br \/>\nBookmark posts to read later;<br \/>\nExclusive curated weekly newsletter;<br \/>\nHide membership messages;<br \/>\nComments open for discussion.<\/p>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/02\/05\/ferry-cancellations-create-bottleneck-medication\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RECENT disruption to the lifeline ferry services is having an impact on the supply of medication, particularly for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,104,14255,56,54,55,1068],"class_list":{"0":"post-409270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-shetland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}