Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any of the medicines used to treat symptoms of Strep A are stocked in the essential medicines buffer stock; and what plans he has to release medicines from that stock to support the treatment of Strep A.

The Essential Medicines Buffer Stock (EMBS) programme formally ended in 2019/2020. A small number of products were, however, retained in the EMBS to March 2022 as part of the COVID-19 Supportive Medicines stockpile. There are no plans to reinstate the EMBS.

We are taking decisive action to address temporary supply issues with some antibiotics that can be used to treat Strep A and to improve access to these medicines by continuing to work with manufacturers and wholesalers to speed up deliveries, bring forward stock they have to help ensure it gets to where it is needed and to boost supply to meet demand as quickly as possible.

Further, Serious Shortage Protocols have been issued across the United Kingdom for penicillin medicines, which will help mitigate local supply issues and allow pharmacists to supply alternative forms of the medicine, or alternative antibiotics, if they don’t have the specific product stated on the prescription.