My toddler had croup and developed very strained breathing so, being a Sunday, we called 111 and were sent to an out of hours gp based in a hospital.
They prescribed steroids, and told us we needed to start them straight away. We were told by the gp we couldn't get them from the hospital pharmacy because we had the wrong colour prescription. I'm assuming this was related to level of need but I don't know.
After driving to one pharmacy we were told the medication wasn't available and there was a shortage. We then called, or drove to, another seven pharmacies, none of whom had it in stock. We were, however, told they had it in a slightly different form (can't remember the details) and that we would need to return to the gp to get a new prescription if we wanted that one. Three hours had past by this point.
Aware my toddlers breathing could potentially worsen and that we'd been advised to start the steroids immediately, I was quite concerned. I called the hospital and luckily we just caught the gp whose shift was finishing at noon.
We had to drive back to the hospital, collect the new prescription and travel back to the pharmacy to get his medication.
I was very fortunate that I have a car, a phone with credit, English is my first language, could pay the extortionate hospital parking fees (twice) and could do this three hour trip without having to bring several other children with me. Many do not have these privileges. It's a huge safety and equity issue. And I was actually able to get the medication eventually that day, many others seem to be facing issues that are leaving them without their prescriptions for weeks.