Medicine shortages have become a structural challenge in primary care. While considerable attention has been paid to the causes of shortages and strategies to manage them, less is known about how patients perceive these shortages and the measures taken to address them. Understanding the patient perspective is essential to ensure that interventions are not only effective, but also acceptable and responsive to patients' needs.

This presentation explores the patient perspective on medicine shortages using findings from recent and ongoing research in the Netherlands. It discusses the impact of shortages across the clinical, humanistic and economic domains, as well as patients’ trust in medicines and stakeholders across the pharmaceutical supply chain. It also examines how patients perceive and weigh different shortage management strategies. The presentation discusses how these insights can support the development of patient-centred policies and interventions for medicine shortages while limiting patient impact and maintaining trust in pharmaceutical care.