The honest answer first
There is no national, live stock checker for UK pharmacies — not on the NHS website, not on MediWatch, and not anywhere else. Every pharmacy holds its own stock in its own system, and none of those systems are public. Anyone showing you “12 available, your local branch” for a prescription medicine is guessing.
What can be checked, and what this page does: (1) whether your medicine is in a national shortage according to official DHSC and NHS data, and (2) which pharmacies are near you, so you have a call list rather than a walk around town. The last mile is a phone call — and there is a script for it further down.
On this page
Check a medicine now
Enter the medicine and your postcode. We look the medicine up in the official national shortage records we track, and list nearby pharmacies you can phone. MediWatch does not guarantee live local stock. Contact the pharmacy to confirm before travelling, and never stop or change medication without medical advice.
Check shortage status and nearby pharmacies
Search by medicine name and UK postcode. Use the exact product name, strength and formulation if you know them — "Elvanse 30mg capsules" is a far more useful question than "ADHD medicine".
Medicines currently flagged in the national data include the following. This list is read live from the shortage tracker when the page loads.
"Out of stock" means three different things
Working out which of these you are facing tells you what to do next. It is the single most useful question to ask at the counter.
| What is actually happening | How you find out | What usually works |
|---|---|---|
| This branch has none today — but the wholesaler has it | Ask: "can you order it, and when would it arrive?" | The pharmacy orders it in, usually for the next working day. Often faster than driving around. |
| The wholesaler cannot supply it — a regional or brand-level squeeze | Ask: "is it out at the wholesaler, or is it a national shortage?" | Another pharmacy using a different wholesaler may have it. This is where a call list helps. |
| A national shortage — the manufacturer or supply chain is short | Check the shortage status above, or the live tracker | Ask whether a Serious Shortage Protocol applies. If not, your prescriber may need to change strength, brand or medicine. |
The phone script that gets a real answer
Pharmacy teams are busy. A specific question gets a specific answer. Have the box or your repeat slip in front of you and say:
"Hello — I'm trying to find [medicine name], [strength], [formulation], [quantity]. Three quick questions:"
- Do you have it in stock today?
- If not, can you order it, and when would it arrive?
- If you can't get it at all, do you know whether it's a national shortage — and is there a nearby branch you'd suggest I try?
If they say yes, ask them to put it aside until you get there. A "yes" on the phone is not a reservation unless you ask for one.
If you have a paper prescription, mention it — the pharmacy can often take it in, order the medicine, and text you when it lands, which saves the journey entirely. If your prescription is electronic, it sits with whichever pharmacy it was sent to, so a different branch may need it released before they can dispense.
What a pharmacist can do beyond "we haven't got it"
A community pharmacist has more room to help than most people realise. It is worth asking directly:
- Order it in. Most wholesaler deliveries run at least once a day. If the medicine exists in the supply chain, next working day is common.
- Give you part of it now. If they have some but not all of your quantity, they can dispense what they have and owe you the rest — usually called an "owing". Ask for it rather than leaving empty-handed.
- Check with nearby branches. Pharmacies in the same group can often see or ring round sister branches.
- Supply an alternative under a Serious Shortage Protocol, if one is active for that exact product (see below).
- Talk to your prescriber for you. Where no protocol exists, the pharmacist can contact your GP or specialist to agree a change, which is faster than you starting that conversation from scratch.
- Make an emergency supply if you have run out of a medicine you are already prescribed — within the legal limits set by regulation 225 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. See how emergency supply works.
Serious Shortage Protocols, explained
When a medicine is in a national shortage, the Department of Health and Social Care can issue a Serious Shortage Protocol (SSP). An SSP lets a community pharmacist supply a specified alternative — a different strength, quantity, formulation or in some cases a different medicine — against your existing prescription, without going back to your GP first.
Two things matter about SSPs. They are product-specific: an SSP for one brand or strength does not cover another. And they are time-limited: they are issued and withdrawn as supply changes. The official register is the NHSBSA list of active Serious Shortage Protocols. Asking "is there an SSP for this?" at the counter is one of the most useful sentences available to you.
Boots, Asda, Lloyds and other "stock checkers"
People search for a stock checker for particular chains. We are not aware of any UK pharmacy chain that publishes a live, public stock checker for prescription-only medicines, and there are good reasons why: stock changes hour to hour, prescription medicines are dispensed against a prescription rather than sold off a shelf, and controlled drugs are held in small, tightly recorded quantities. Where a chain's website does have a "stock checker" or "check availability" tool, it generally applies to retail products you can buy over the counter.
The practical equivalent is the branch phone number. Use the NHS find a pharmacy service or the checker above to build a short call list, then work down it with the script.
If you have already run out
Finding stock and getting an emergency supply are different problems. If your next dose is due and you have nothing left, do not spend the evening ringing pharmacies — go to the emergency supply route instead.
Get an emergency supply →
The pharmacy and NHS 111 routes, what they cost, and what you can be given.
It is evening or a weekend →
Out-of-hours pharmacies, GP services and NHS 111.
Never stretch, split or skip doses to make a supply last unless a pharmacist or prescriber has told you it is safe for that specific medicine, and never take someone else's medicine even if the name matches.
Questions people ask
Is there an NHS medication stock checker?
There is no NHS service that shows live stock at individual pharmacies. The NHS publishes national supply information — Department of Health and Social Care medicine supply notifications, and Serious Shortage Protocols from the NHSBSA — which tells you whether a medicine is in a national shortage. It does not tell you which branch has a box on the shelf. MediWatch tracks the national data and gives you a call list for the local part.
Can I check pharmacy stock online in the UK?
Not for prescription-only medicines. Each pharmacy holds its own stock and its stock system is not public, so no website can honestly show you live shelf counts across UK pharmacies. Where a pharmacy chain's site has a "stock checker", it generally covers retail products you can buy off the shelf, not prescription medicines. Phoning the branch is still the only reliable way to confirm.
Why does one pharmacy have my medicine and another does not?
Pharmacies buy from different wholesalers, hold different quantities, and get different daily allocations when supply is tight. During a national shortage, wholesalers often ration stock per pharmacy, so a branch that dispenses a lot of one medicine may be capped while a quieter branch still has some. This is also why a pharmacy can often order your medicine for the next working day even when it has none today.
Is there an ADHD medication stock checker?
No live one exists, for the same reason as any other medicine — and ADHD stimulants are controlled drugs, so pharmacies hold small, tightly recorded quantities. What you can check is the national picture: see the ADHD medication shortage page for which strengths and brands are currently affected, then phone pharmacies with the exact product name, strength and formulation. If you have run out, a pharmacy cannot make an emergency supply of a Schedule 2 controlled drug, so you need a prescriber — see emergency supply and controlled drugs.
What should I say when I phone a pharmacy?
Give the exact medicine name, strength, formulation and quantity, then ask three questions: do you have it in stock today, can you order it and when would it arrive, and if not, do you know a nearby branch that has it. Ask the pharmacy to hold it while you travel — stock moves quickly and a "yes" over the phone is not a reservation unless you ask.
Does MediWatch know which pharmacy has my medicine?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. MediWatch does not guarantee live local stock. Contact the pharmacy to confirm before travelling, and never stop or change medication without medical advice. What we can do is tell you whether a national shortage is on record, list nearby pharmacies to phone, and give you the wording that gets a useful answer.
Related pages
Run out of medicine today?
The NHS emergency supply routes, step by step.
Live UK shortage tracker
Every medicine currently flagged in official DHSC and NHS data.
A-Z medicine shortage pages
Status, context and alternatives for individual medicines.
Can pharmacies check stock?
What a pharmacy can see on its system, and what it genuinely cannot.
Find medicine in stock near you
The call-first process that actually finds a pharmacy with your medicine.
How availability data works
What "confirmed recently", "reported by pharmacy" and "usually stocked" mean.
ADHD, HRT and diabetes searches
Why strength, form, brand and device details change the answer.
How we are building the tracker
What the locator can show, and why the safety caveats are there.
Track your medicine free
Get an email if your medicine enters or leaves a national shortage. Free, and alerts are rare — that is good news.
Track a medicine free →Written by the MediWatch editorial team and checked against the official sources above on 4 August 2026. This page is information, not medical advice. Always follow your pharmacist, GP, specialist, NHS 111 or urgent-care advice for your own medicine. Report an accuracy issue.
This page was written by the MediWatch editorial team and checked for accuracy against NHS, NHSBSA and legislation.gov.uk guidance. Shortage information comes from official DHSC medicine supply notifications and NHS England Serious Shortage Protocols. See our editorial policy and data sources.