Epilepsy medication shortage 'making me anxious'

A man with epilepsy has said he has been left feeling "anxious" after struggling to get hold of the medication he needs for his condition.

Peter Clunie, 69, from Earley, Berkshire, recently tried five different pharmacies in order to get hold of his anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs).

Since the start of the year, there has been a nationwide concern about the supply of medications for a range of conditions, including ADHD, diabetes, and epilepsy.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it had taken “swift action to improve the supply” of epilepsy medications and that supply issues were not just affecting UK patients.

Mr Clunie, who worked as a handyman, had to take early retirement due to epilepsy, which he was only diagnosed with at 60.

He said it was a “huge shock and completely out of the blue”.

“I had to stop working, I couldn't drive and I couldn't climb ladders," he added.

"I haven't had a seizure in two years but I still suffer from epilepsy amnesia which means a lot of my memories are gone.”

He said it had not yet been discovered why he had epilepsy.

Ongoing medication shortages continue to affect people across the country.

Mr Clunie said: “I’ve been getting it [medication] in Earley for years but all of a sudden they told me that they couldn’t get it and they didn’t know when they were going to get it in.

“So I had to phone round, in fact it was five chemists I phoned before I could find a chemist in Twyford who had the drug in stock.

“It makes me extremely anxious.”

Epilepsy Action said it had received almost five times as many calls about medication stock this year compared to the same time last year.

Pauline Boyle, co-founder of the support group Epilepsy Berkshire, said: “I would say this is unusual, this has only happened... in the last six months."

She continued: “We have a few in our group who unlike Peter, who has a very supportive wife who can drive him around these chemists to get these drugs, they can’t, they have great difficulty.”

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have taken swift action to improve the supply of epilepsy medications.

"Our priority is to ensure patients continue to get the treatments they need, which is why we are working with industry, the NHS and others to further improve the supply of other epilepsy medications as quickly as possible.

“Medicine supply issues do not only affect the UK, and we have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they do occur."

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