\n Ms Nichols asked the Government what assessment it had made of the potential impact that levels of epilepsy medication availability could have on patient safety.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a written parliamentary question to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Labour MP sought clarification on what action was being taken to address supply issues affecting people with epilepsy.\n<\/p>\n
\n Responding on October 27, health minister James Frith said the department recognised that “continuity of access to epilepsy medication is important for patient safety” and was working with medicine suppliers, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and supply chain teams to resolve disruptions as quickly as possible.\n<\/p>\n
\n The minister confirmed the department was aware of several supply issues affecting medicines used to manage epilepsy.\n<\/p>\n
\n These include sodium valproate (Epilim Chronosphere) 50mg and 500mg MR granule sachets, which are expected to be back to normal supply by December 2026, as well as lamotrigine 10mg\/ml oral suspension and phenobarbital 60mg tablets, which are not expected to return to stock until early and late April 2027 respectively.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Frith also said shortages of topiramate 100mg and 200mg tablets are expected to be resolved by mid-February 2027.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “The Department recognises that continuity of access to epilepsy medication is important for patient safety, and we routinely work with medicine suppliers, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and supply chain teams to ensure that any disruptions in supplies are resolved as soon as possible.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The minister added that NHS clinicians had been issued with guidance on managing patients affected by shortages, including the use of alternative preparations or manufacturers where appropriate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ms Nichols asked the Government what assessment it had made of the potential impact that levels of epilepsy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-817765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817765","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=817765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}