Cancer patients in the UK dealing with 'worst drug shortage' as sufferers forced to skip meals and ration doses of their medication
A new survey has found that an astonishing 96 per cent of pharmacies are struggling to supply their patients with a crucial cancer drug called Creon.
Thousands of Britons who have suffered pancreas cancer rely on the tablets to help them digest food. However, Creon has been in short supply in the UK for over a year.
Without the drug, patient are at-risk of malnutrition and dangerous weight loss.
According to the National Pharmacy Association, which carried out the survey, pharmacists have described the Creon shortage as the 'worst stockage shortage' they have ever had to deal with.
As a result, patients are reportedly spending hours hunting stock, 'tightly rationing their medication' and even eating just one meal a day to eke out their Creon, the survey revealed.
Creon is just one of dozens of crucial medicines that have been hard to access since the Covid pandemic, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT), antibiotics and inhalers.
Research suggests that more than half of patients have struggled to have their prescriptions met over the past year.
As part of its End The Drug Shortage Nightmare campaign, The Mail on Sunday has called on the Government to give pharmacists the power to make substitutions for patients when drugs are out of stock and to force manufacturers to give advance warning of known shortages or face fines.
We also believe there should be a database for patients to check which pharmacies have drugs in stock – and we say all NHS patients should be allowed to use well-stocked hospital pharmacies to source critical medicines.
Alfie Bailey-Bearfield, of Pancreatic Cancer UK, called the survey findings 'deeply worrying' and said they 'echo the distress and frustration [it is] hearing from patients…across the UK'
'Thousands of people affected by pancreatic cancer rely on taking PERT tablets every time they eat simply to digest their food and absorb nutrients – something most of us take for granted,' he said.
'It's totally unacceptable that they are still taking desperate measures that put their health, wellbeing and their eligibility for treatment at risk.'
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Britain's biggest family faces terrifying medical scare as Harley, 24, is rushed to hospital with a 'stroke' after noticing unusual symptom when drinking a bottle of coke
Britain's biggest family the Radfords faced a terrifying medical scare as Harley Radford was rushed to hospital with the symptoms of a suspected stroke in the latest episode of 22 Kids And Counting. Harley Passmore, 24, is married to Sue and Radford's eldest daughter, Millie, 23 - and the couple share two children, Chester, three, and Elodie, one, while Millie also has Ophelia, four, from a previous relationship. During the latest episode of the Channel 5 show, which aired on Sunday, Millie, from Morecombe in Lancashire, and Harley, were seen having a big disagreement about whether he should adopt Ophelia. But the row was soon pushed to the background as mother-of-three Millie was left in a state of panic when her husband was rushed to hospital with stroke symptoms. Harley was taken to hospital and given an MRI as he was slurring his words, had a lopsided face, felt dizzy and had weakness down one side of his body. Millie stayed the night with her husband as Sue and Noel looked after their three children. Harley - who had high blood pressure - told the camera: 'I'm panicking that I've had a stroke, I shouldn't be having a stroke at 24.' Recounting how he felt, the father admitted he'd first noticed something was wrong after drinking a bottle of Coke. He said: 'This morning I was fine and I've gone to work and I was there for two hours and I had a drink out of a Coke bottle and it felt really wonky. My face went really droopy. 'Next thing I felt really weak in the left side of my body and I felt a bit dizzy and a bit drowsy so I went home.' He then called the emergency services, who sent an ambulance because they thought it may have been a stroke. However, the MRI results revealed that Harley suffered from Bell's palsy, a temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects 1 side of the face, and not a stroke, as initially thought. 'When I thought Harley was having a stroke, it was scary,' Millie said. 'He was worried and I was worried because of the paralysis side of it. What if he had never been able to cope with three kids again after that? Or handle his life before that?' This health scare led her to reconsider her husband becoming Ophelia's adopted father. Millie and Harley, 24, first got together when Ophelia was six months old and he has been eager to adopt her ever since, as he 'treats her like my own'. He told the show: 'We can't leave Ophelia out. When she gets a bit older, she will start to understand [and question] "Why is my name different to Chester and Elodie's and mummy's and daddy's?"' But Millie was not keen on the idea, as she has not told her daughter that Harley is not her biological father. 'I would worry for Ophelia. [She's] only four and it's a lot to deal with at such a young age,' she said. The disagreement led to a big argument, with Harley questioning whether his wife thought he was an 'an incomplete father' or 'not a good enough dad'. The row came to a head after a panicked Millie called her mother Sue and told her Harley was being blue-lighted to hospital with stroke symptoms, as she admitted feeling guilty about their squabble. She said: 'I felt guilty straight away, wondering whether our arguing had caused all of it. If something happened to him, how would I feel then?' She added: 'It's made me change my mind because if anything was to happen to her, I know that Ophelia would have loved for Harley to be her dad so that is what I am going to make happen.' Millie said that she was initially worried about how her eldest daughter would react if she found out that Harley was not her biological father. 'Ophelia's biological dad is not on the birth certificate because he never wanted him to be and I never wanted him to be on it,' she said. 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The parents decided to see a solicitor to see if there were other options for Harley to become more legally involved in Ophelia's life. They were told that a step-parental responsibility agreement could be put in place to transfer some of Millie's rights over to Harley, meaning he would get 'exactly the same rights in terms of decision making'. The lawyer described the process as 'much quicker and more simple', adding: 'You can have input into any decision regarding her life [for example] what surname she has, what school she goes to, if she needed an operation, you would be able to consent to that.' At the time the episode was filmed, Ophelia had a different surname to Millie, Harley and her siblings, Chester and Elodie. The solicitor reiterated that once the documents were signed, the agreement would be a permanent decision which could only be overturned by a court. However, Harley and Millie agreed to sign the document, which was legally witnessed by the family court. 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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
I lost 12st with fat jabs and reversed high blood pressure and joint pain – ex-boyfriends are crawling back
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Wales Online
an hour ago
- Wales Online
Vet nurse shares worries as 90% of dog owners don't know vital skill
Vet nurse shares worries as 90% of dog owners don't know vital skill The vet urged pet owners to take action as she demonstrated how to use the life-saving skill Pet owners could help save a dog by learning the skill (Image: Getty) A veterinary nurse has warned that most dog owners haven't learned a skill that could save their pet's life. The alert was shared by Jade The Vet Nurse (@ who shares educational videos with her 96,000 TikTok followers. In a recent post, she highlighted a life-saving skill animal lovers should learn, reports the Mirror. She claimed: "90% of dog owners don't know how to give CPR," as per results from a survey by PDSA. Keen to help, she then shared a video demonstrating what to do if you ever need to give a dog CPR. Jade said: "Your dog has collapsed and they're not breathing. Would you know what to do? Around 75 to 90% of pet owners do not know how to give effective CPR to their pets. I'm on a mission as a UK-registered vet nurse to educate pet owners on how to give effective CPR as a method of first aid should the worst happen." The vet nurse explained: "Firstly, we need to establish if CPR is definitely necessary. We need to do an initial triage and remember A, B and C. A is for airway, open up the dog's mouth, pull their tongue right forward get a good look at the back of their throat. Is it clear? Is there anything obstructing their airway? "You need to make sure the airway is clear to give effective CPR. If the airway is blocked or your dog is choking, I have got a separate video on what to do if your dog is choking. Once you know the airway is clear, we move on to B, and B is for breathing. Content cannot be displayed without consent Article continues below "For this, we need to get down to chest height of the dog and watch. Can you see if their chest is rising and falling? If you can't see the chest rising and falling, place their nose to your cheek, can you feel any breath on the side of your cheek? Can you hear that they're breathing?" She added: "If not, check the colour of their gums. Are they turning a shade of blue or purple? If yes, there's already oxygen deprivation, in which case we move on to C, which is for circulation. Can you feel a pulse? Place your hand behind your dog's elbow on their ribs, and can you feel a heartbeat? This can sometimes be a little bit challenging in dogs that are overweight. You can also try and place two fingers on the inside of their upper thigh and try and feel a femoral pulse. If there's no pulse, there's no heartbeat, they're not breathing, they're going a shade of blue or purple, then we need to start CPR." Jade advised: "First things first, if you haven't already, you need to call your vet and alert them of the situation. They will also be able to give you further advice on the phone. You need to make sure that your dog is laying on a flat hard surface, ideally on their right-hand side. If you have got a very large dog who is laying on the left hand side and you are unable to flip them over do not worry, just continue with CPR with them laying on the left, because any CPR is better than none." The expert said the next step includes different advice for different dog breeds. "Now this bit is really important, so pay attention. Where you place your hands for CPR depends on the type of breed and shape your dog is. So for dogs that are round-chested, examples of this are labradors, golden retrievers, spaniels, they have a bit of a dome here on the side, you want to place your hands on the widest part of the rib cage. The vet nurse shared a step-by-step guide (stock photo) (Image: Getty) "If you have got a deep-chested dog like a doberman, an alsatian or a greyhound, who have got particularly deep-keeled chests, then you want to place your hands directly above their heart, which is just behind their elbow, so going behind the elbow. "If you have got a wide-chested dog, such as a French bulldog or an English bulldog, who are pretty much as wide as they are tall, then you want to place these on their backs and you give the compressions directly on top in the middle of their sternum. So for this example, I'm gonna continue as if this is a labrador and if I'm gonna go for the widest part of the rib cage. What we need to do is interlock our fingers. "We're gonna be using the heel of the palm of the hand, so elbows locked straight, shoulders directly above the dog where you're about to give the compressions, and you need to compress the chest to about 1/3 to 1/2 of the depth of their entire chest depth. So we need to do 120 compressions a minute, which works out as two compressions a second, and you can do this to the beat of 'staying alive'. You need to do this 30 times and then stop to give two breaths." Content cannot be displayed without consent Article continues below Explaining how to 'give breaths', Jade went on: "To give the breaths you need to keep the dog's tongue inside their mouth and clamp your fingers around the mouth creating an airlock, place their nose into your mouth and give two breaths after each breath make sure you check the rib cage is rising sufficiently to make sure they are getting the oxygen. Don't stop after you've given the breaths, straight back into compressions. You need to keep cycling between 30 compressions and giving two breaths." Her caption added: "Note if you have a small dog (under 7kg) or a cat, you can use this same technique but just use one hand for compressions instead of two." Jade said she'd hope your vet will be giving you instructions, but that you can continue CPR for up to about 20 minutes, stopping every two minutes to see if there are any signs of life. "If at any point your dog starts showing signs of life and they're trying to recover, stop CPR, get them to the vet as soon as possible," she concluded. "If your dog isn't showing any signs of life yet, continue CPR or keep going as instructed by your veterinarian."
