Although satisfaction levels generally remain high with pharmacy services in North Tyneside, stocks problems are causing concern
16:28, 05 Jun 2025Updated 16:31, 05 Jun 2025
339 people in North Tyneside report that, over the last year, they were unable to get a complete perscription due to stock problems. (Image: PA)
Stock problems in North Tyneside chemists are causing hundreds to miss out on complete prescriptions, according to a report.
Research conducted by Healthwatch North Tyneside, as part of a wider pharmacy assessment in the area, has found hundreds of people over the last year were unable to pick up complete prescriptions due to stock problems. Out of 646 surveyed residents unable to get everything they needed from the chemist in the last 12 months, 339 cases were down to stock problems.
In this morning’s North Tyneside Council health and wellbeing committee, Healthwatch North Tyneside director Paul Jones said: “What we found this time though, which is really interesting, much more than a few years ago was issues around stock. So challenges around people who couldn’t always get what they had been prescribed.
“And it’s a real challenge for people who have partial refill prescriptions, so they might have four things on a prescription, get three of them, can’t get the other one, and it’s a protracted and challenging process for pharmacies, GPs, and the residents to get the missing item.”
The Healthwatch report goes on to state that some residents state it can take “weeks” to get all their items and electronic prescriptions make it difficult to “shop around” for missing items as a separate digital prescription is needed.
It was suggested by residents to healthwatch that text alerts, indicating when a prescription is fully dispensed, would be helpful to avoid multiple trips.
However, overall residents responded positively to their interactions with their local chemists. Out of 817 who responded to the question of how satisfied they were with access to their prescriptions, the results were as followed:
- Very satisfied: 494
- Quite satisfied: 232
- Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied: 61
- Quite dissatisfied: 18
- Very dissatisfied: 12
In addition, 75.1% of 837 respondents also stated they lived within a 10 minute walk to their nearest chemist.
The council’s draft pharmaceutical needs assessment also states: “The current pharmaceutical provision has been deemed sufficient in terms of geographical accessibility and opening hours given the expected increases in population in these areas, because current pharmacy provision is extensive.”
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