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<p>A serious shortage protocol is an additional tool to manage and mitigate medication
shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures
have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective. Any protocol would only be introduced
if clinicians with expertise in the relevant area think it is appropriate. Pharmacists
still have to use their professional discretion as to whether supplying against the
protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate, or whether the patient needs
to be referred back to their prescriber.</p><p> </p><p>As the explanatory memorandum
of the amending Statutory Instrument acknowledges, protocols for therapeutic or generic
equivalents will not be suitable for all medicines and patients. For example, those
types of protocols would not be suitable for treatments for epilepsy or treatments
requiring biological products where the medicines that are prescribed need to be prescribed
by brand for clinical reasons. In these cases, patients would always be referred back
to the prescriber for any decision about their treatment before any therapeutic or
generic alternative is supplied.</p>
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