UK medicine shortages in 2026: what our tracker logged

Headline numbers

MediWatch reads every DHSC medicine supply notification (MSN) that Community Pharmacy England publishes, and every NHSBSA Serious Shortage Protocol (SSP), twice a day. This study is what nine months of that record shows. Every notice is listed at the end, with a link to its source.

New notices month by month

July was the busiest month of 2026, with six new notices, including sodium valproate (Epilim Chronosphere), nifedipine MR tablets, Fixapost eye drops and Voltarol Ophtha. April was the quietest, with one (ramipril 1.25mg capsules). Late August and early September brought a second cluster: Moviprep and Plenvu, venlafaxine 75mg, edoxaban 15mg, methylprednisolone, ramipril and lansoprazole orodispersible tablets.

Is 2026 worse than 2025?

Not on new notices. DHSC numbers its medicine supply notifications in sequence each year, so the highest reference issued by a given date is a clean year-on-year comparison. By 7 September, the numbering had reached:

Counts only notices issued, not how long each one lasted. Source: MSN reference numbers in CPE-published notices.

So the flow of new shortages has slowed since the 2024 peak. That is not the same as shortages being solved. The problem in 2026 is duration: notices that outlive their estimates, and protocols renewed again and again.

The resupply dates that did not hold

Most supply notices give an estimated resupply date, such as "out of stock until mid-July 2026". The median estimate in 2026 notices was about 48 days (roughly seven weeks) after issue.

Of the 29 notices issued in 2026, 13 (45%) reached their estimated date without the published notice being updated to confirm that supply had recovered. A further 5 were not supply gaps at all (discontinuations and similar notices), and 11 were still active at our check.

"Unconfirmed" does not mean the medicine is still short. It means the official notice was never updated to say it is back. For a patient, that silence is the problem: you cannot tell from the notice whether to keep looking.

The clearest example is not even a 2026 notice. Propranolol 80mg and 160mg modified-release capsules came under DHSC notice MSN/2025/059 in November 2025, with supply expected in early March 2026. The estimate moved to July, then early August. On 10 September 2026, Community Pharmacy England reported that the SPS Medicines Supply Tool now showed November 2026: more than eight months later than the first estimate. Propranolol was the most-searched medicine on MediWatch this summer.

Which medicines were hit hardest

We grouped each 2026 notice by the condition the medicine treats. Heart and blood pressure medicines led, with seven notices: ramipril (twice), propafenone (twice), nifedipine, disopyramide and edoxaban. Epilepsy and neurology followed with five: sodium valproate (twice), phenobarbital, oxcarbazepine and the seizure rescue medicine midazolam (Epistatus).

Grouping by MediWatch. Each notice is counted once, under the main condition the medicine treats.

These are areas where switching is rarely simple. Epilepsy medicines in particular are often kept on the same product for consistency, so a supply gap can mean a specialist review rather than a pharmacy swap. See our heart medication and epilepsy medication shortage hubs.

The longest-running shortages

Some of the most important shortages started long before 2026. These were still in force at our check.

• Creon 10000 and 25000 capsules (pancreatic enzymes for cystic fibrosis and pancreatic conditions): SSP060 and SSP061 started on 24 May 2024 and are listed with an end date of 2 October 2026. See Creon status.
• Estradot HRT patches: SSP079–SSP081 from 19 December 2024, also listed to 2 October 2026. See Estradot status.
• Quetiapine modified-release tablets: MSN/2025/006 since 10 February 2025; immediate-release tablets remain available. See quetiapine status.

What patients searched for

From 12 July to 30 September 2026, people searched MediWatch for a medicine 34,649 times. Searches grew every month, from 6,589 in the second half of July to 18,266 in September. 4,105 searches (11.8%) were for a medicine that had an active national notice at the time.

The list maps closely onto the year's real problems: propranolol MR, Estradot, propafenone, venlafaxine, Movicol, ramipril and quetiapine.

People also used our pharmacy finder 31,497 times between 28 June and 30 September, for 4,294 different medicine names. Because no UK pharmacy publishes live prescription stock, none of those searches could be answered with confirmed stock; the finder lists nearby NHS pharmacies to phone. That gap, between what patients look for and what any public data can tell them, is one of the clearest findings in this study.

Every 2026 notice

All 29 DHSC medicine supply notifications published for community pharmacy from January to September 2026, with their status at our 1 October check.

Method and limitations

• Source. DHSC medicine supply notifications as published by Community Pharmacy England, and NHSBSA's Serious Shortage Protocol list, collected twice daily by MediWatch. Snapshot taken on 1 October 2026 (17:17 UTC); figures checked on 2 October 2026.
• Coverage. CPE publishes the notices relevant to community pharmacy. Some DHSC notices, mainly hospital-only products, are not included, which is why 29 notices are logged against a reference number of 44.
• "Estimate passed, recovery unconfirmed". The notice's own estimated date has passed and the published notice does not say supply has recovered. Updates can appear elsewhere, such as the login-only SPS Medicines Supply Tool, as happened with propranolol.
• Year-on-year. Based on the highest MSN reference number issued by 7 September each year, as seen in CPE-published notices.
• Searches. Aggregate counts of searches on mediwatch.co.uk, matched to a medicine name. No personal data is included, and no medicine with fewer than ten searches is named.
• Therapeutic areas. Assigned by MediWatch, one per notice.

Journalists and researchers: you are welcome to use these figures with a credit to "MediWatch UK shortage tracker" and a link to this page. For anything you need that is not here, contact us.

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