Footnotes

• Competing interests None.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

• ↵i While this document is not meant to be prescriptive, Chief Pharmacists will need to consider all the processes outlined below and ensure that they meet the needs of the organisation and the risk to patients generated by each shortage.

• ↵ii If hospitals work collaboratively within a ‘region’ then this assessment may not need to be carried out at each hospital.

• ↵iii Working collaboratively (eg, within a region), limited stocks can be shared based on clinical need.

• ↵iv This work should be supported by regional and/or national Quality Assurance advice and additional clinical information on alternative products should be obtained from regional/national Medicines Information services.