The resilience of rural medicines supply has been raised in the Scottish Parliament.

Continuing its inquiry on medicines (supply and demand), Scotland’s Health and Sport Committee heard how rural dispensers, including dispensing GPs, “get [their] skis on and get the medicines to people in communities”.

During the debate, MSPs were told of the complexity of the medicines supply chain and the frustrations of direct to pharmacy distribution models.

But, defending the current model, Jonathan Burton of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society described the system as “fairly bullet-proof”. He added: “we have a bit of a cushion when things go wrong.”