Last week it was announced that the Government plans to consult on medication barcode requirements. Our Head of Marketing, Shelley Gibbins, explains why the focus of this consultation needs to cover more than just medication shortages.
It has been revealed that the Government is planning to consult on barcode requirements for medicine packaging “in due course,” with the primary aim of strengthening supply chain resilience and tackling ongoing medicines shortages.
The plans were outlined by Dr Zubir Ahmed, at a parliamentary reception hosted by the Company Chemist’s Association (CCA) and are in response to the recent House of Lords report into medicine shortages, which identified better data and real-time visibility of stock as key to boosting supply chain resilience.
The future consultation is a welcome and important step. However, focusing solely on supply chain resilience risks missing a much bigger point, barcodes are not just about stock visibility, they are also fundamental to patient safety and dispensing efficiency.
Beyond Shortages: The Wider Role of Barcodes
The House of Lords’ report found that better data and real-time stock visibility were key to addressing shortages. Accurate, scannable barcodes can:
But this is only one piece of the puzzle. Barcodes are not just a logistics tool. With the rise of technology, barcodes are now a clinical safety mechanism embedded in everyday pharmacy practice.
Patient Safety: The “Final Check” That Cannot Be Ignored
For a number of months, Centred Solutions has become increasingly concerned about reports of missing and inaccurate 2D barcodes on medication and has been actively highlighting this issue due to the significant risk posed.
Barcode errors can lead to the wrong medicine or wrong dose reaching patients, with potentially serious consequences. Missing 2D barcodes can also undermine pharmacy automation scanning systems, designed to act as a digital safety net for pharmacy. Centred Solutions are not alone, other pharmacy leaders have warned that barcode issues continue to pose critical patient safety issues, with an online campaign set up by one pharmacy.
In modern pharmacy, where automation and digital systems are increasingly relied upon to release pharmacist time for patient-facing services, missing or inaccurate barcodes remove a crucial layer of safety. With many dispensing systems, a barcode is now effectively part of the “final check” in the dispensing process. When it fails, pharmacy teams must revert to manual verification, introducing unnecessary delays and increasing the risk of human error.
Dispensing Efficiency: The Hidden Operational Cost
There is also the less discussed, but equally important consequence, of a loss in efficiency. When barcodes are missing or incorrect, staff must manually input or verify product details and temporary labels may need to be printed. The whole point of automation is to create efficiencies in the dispensing process, missing and inaccurate barcodes totally undermine that. These workflow interruptions all slow down the dispensing process and mean more time on administrative tasks and less time with patients.
Digital Transformation Depends on Barcode Integrity
Pharmacy is rapidly moving towards hub and spoke, robotic dispensing and intelligent PMR systems which all rely on accurate, standardised barcode data. Without it, this automation cannot function in the way it is designed to, interoperability between systems is reduced and digital safety checks are bypassed.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has been clear and said barcode standards are “fundamental to patient safety, operational resilience and the NHS digital future.”
A Risk of Missing the Bigger Opportunity
The upcoming consultation is an important step forward. But if the focus remains solely on shortages, there is a risk of underestimating the full value of medication barcodes. Barcodes should not be viewed purely as a supply chain enhancement, they should be recognised as an essential part of the dispensing process within pharmacy.
The UK now has an opportunity to reset its approach following the removal of EU Falsified Medicines Directive requirements. This is an opportunity to improve:
A consistent, mandated approach to accurate barcodes is not just a nice to have, it is essential. Every barcode scan is more than a data point. It is a safeguard between the medicine and the patient.