Lack of drug led to 'agony' death

The former husband of a mother of three says she died in agony from cancer because of a shortage of a painkiller.

Joe Fortescue from Alfreton, Derbyshire wants the government to provide more diamorphine, which has been in short supply since 2004.

He said his 49-year-old ex-wife from Nottingham was screaming in pain in the days before her death because it was not available.

Gedling Primary Care Trust said there was a national shortage of the drug.

Highly effective

Diamorphine is an opiate produced from poppies.

"I want to know why the drug is not available more readily to make patients comfortable in their last hours," Mr Fortescue said.

He said his former wife was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and had been prescribed morphine up until a few days before her death.

She was then prescribed diamorphine, which is a stronger derivative of morphine, but the supply ran out and the district nurse was not able to replace it, he said.

We cannot meet much more than 50% to 60% of the market demand Pharmaceutical firm Wockhardt

"The district nurse rang around but couldn't locate the drug - if you went on the street you could probably buy heroin illegally in five minutes, but you can't get a prescribed drugs for days," Mr Fortescue said.

Pharmacist Lyndon Close of Burrows and Close Pharmacies said: "There is nothing as effective as diamorphine for battling the immense pain that patients suffer in the later stages of a terminal disease."

He said the supply shortage dated back to December 2004.

"This has been going on for a year and a half - since then we have been scrapping for supplies almost on a weekly basis."

He said there are some dedicated poppy farms in the UK to produce raw material for the medication, but there were stringent controls on them.

Screams of pain

Mr Fortescue said: "I don't want anybody to go through what my three children had to go through - the hell of having to listen to their mother scream in pain."

Gedling PCT said it was aware of the problem with the supply of diamorphine and had been consulting Macmillan Cancer Care and the GPs who support that service on the best way to resolve it.

"A scheme will shortly be launched for certain pharmacies across Greater Nottingham to hold stocks of palliative care drugs such as Diamorphine... to be able to supply them at short notice," it said.

The pharmaceutical firm that supplies diamorphine, Wockhardt, said: "Capacity constraints in our manufacturing facilities mean that despite our best efforts we cannot meet much more than 50% to 60% of the market demand".

The Department of Health was not available for comment.