Official shortage notices and what they authorise posts 31–60
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
I will take the caveat as seriously as the claim, which is the point of putting it there.
Compounding during shortages: some jurisdictions allow pharmacy compounding when a marketed product is in shortage. That permission is jurisdiction-specific and time-limited (usually for the duration of the shortage).
Adding the caveat now so it does not have to be extracted later.
The arithmetic in post #31 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.
Reading this official shortage notices thread as someone who came in with a fixed view: the third and seventh replies moved me and the confident ones did not.
The published shortage register maintained by the national regulator is the authoritative source here, and it is updated far more often than any thread.
A weak preference rather than a position.
Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above
Post #35 describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.
I have been on both sides of the official shortage notices argument in this category within eighteen months, which should tell you how strong the evidence for either side is.
Adding the measurement that post #35 says would settle it.
Where an alternative within the class is available, the comparison is a clinical one and the doses are not equivalent.
Post #35 and I disagree about the size of the effect, not about the direction.
Shortages end and the notices are updated. Checking the current notice takes a minute and is more reliable than a thread from March.
The variance between people here is larger than the effect being discussed.
Taking post #39 at face value and following it one step further.
Where a shortage forces a gap, the pharmacokinetics mean a missed week is a perturbation rather than a reset, which is worth knowing.
Speaking for myself and not for anyone else who has posted here.
Worth separating two things that post #38 runs together.
The most useful contribution is a link to the current official notice rather than an account of one pharmacy.
Two sources, same conclusion, and I could not rule out that one copied the other.
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Regional differences during a shortage are large, and a supply position in one country says nothing about another.
It cost nothing to check and would have cost something not to.
Taking post #44 at face value and following it one step further.
Official shortage notices: I would want to see the raw numbers rather than the summary before agreeing. Summaries lose exactly the information that would settle this.
Planning around a known shortage window is easier than reacting to one, and the notices give advance warning more often than people expect.
Reading it back, the second half matters more than the first.
I read post #46 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
Compounding during shortages: some jurisdictions allow pharmacy compounding when a marketed product is in shortage. That permission is jurisdiction-specific and time-limited (usually for the duration of the shortage).
A definition problem is doing most of the work in this official shortage notices discussion. Once the term is pinned down I suspect the disagreement mostly goes away and what is left is small.
Managing an unplanned gap: if a shortage causes a gap in treatment, the questions are how long the gap will be and how that affects your condition. Discussing with your clinician is prudent if the gap is weeks or longer.
Dose hold versus tapering: if a temporary shortage forces a gap, holding your dose and resuming when supply returns is different from gradually tapering. The two are different decisions.
Both are useful and different. The notice tells you the national position; the account tells you what is happening on the ground.
Taking post #54 at face value and following it one step further.
I have no financial interest in anything named in this thread and I want to say so before I comment on official shortage notices, because it is the sort of subject where it matters.
Pharmacy-level availability varies enormously during a shortage, so two honest accounts from the same city can be opposite.
This follows post #57 rather than contradicting it.
Shortage predictions: regulators and suppliers issue shortage alerts before they become acute. Checking the regulatory website for shortages gives you advance notice.
The interesting part of this is the exception, and I do not understand the exception.