Shortages by Medical Category
| Category | Active | Total | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other | 86 | 131 | |
| HRT / Hormones | 23 | 24 | |
| Mental Health | 19 | 20 | |
| Diabetes | 7 | 12 | |
| Epilepsy | 5 | 5 | |
| Antibiotics | 5 | 9 | |
| Respiratory | 2 | 4 | |
| Pain / Controlled | 2 | 7 | |
| ADHD | 2 | 3 | |
| Cardiovascular | 1 | 3 |
Severity Distribution
| Severity Level | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Serious Shortage | 85 | 56% |
| medium | 46 | 30% |
| Unclassified | 13 | 9% |
| Medium | 4 | 3% |
| high | 2 | 1% |
| High | 2 | 1% |
Data Sources
133
DHSC Medicine Supply Notifications
Published via the Specialist Pharmacy Service. The primary official record of UK medicine supply disruptions.
85
NHS Serious Shortage Protocols
Issued when shortages are severe enough to require pharmacists to supply alternatives without contacting prescribers.
How We Collect This Data
MediWatch monitors official DHSC and NHS England shortage publications twice daily. Our automated system checks for new Medicine Supply Notifications (MSNs) and Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs), cross-references them against our database of 896 tracked medicines, and alerts subscribed patients within minutes.
All data is sourced exclusively from official government publications. See our editorial policy and data sources for full methodology.
MW
MediWatch Research Team
Verified against official DHSC & NHS England data
This dashboard is maintained by the MediWatch UK team using data from official DHSC and NHS England publications.