Local Pharmacies Struggle To Keep Certain Medications On Store Shelves

Health officials say medication shortages are hitting the shelves as shipping and supply issues around the world are trickling into their pharmacies.

Doctors say they are seeing blood pressure medication disappear from their supplies much quicker than other medicines, leaving some people without the prescription they are used to.

Owasso Medicap owner Dr. Kathy Campbell said this isn’t a new issue, this is something that has been looming for years and is now getting worse.

Campbell says both the local pharmacies and big chains are struggling to keep medications on their shelves.

“Pharmacy always has some challenges with different kind of medication supply chains,” Campbell said. “It could be recall or contamination but over the last couple years we have seen some supply chain issues on the medication side and the product side.”

Campbell said there are people who want to get their usual refill, only to find out when it’s already too late that the pharmacy doesn’t have that medicine and they don’t know when it will be restocked.

“We are doing things to make sure there isn’t a lapse in care,” Campbell said. “Like if you can’t get the 100mg, we’re going to give you two 50mg, or if it’s a combination product, we are going to give them individuals and we are going to do that as long as we can until we just can’t get it.”

She said there are also alternate medications that can be used instead, many with the exact same ingredients a patient is used to in their current prescription.