This guidance is for medicines marketing authorisation holders (MAHs). It gives them an overview of how to report medicines shortages to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) under the January 2019 regulations.

MAHs should report supply issues, including potential shortages and discontinuations, to DHSC via the discontinuations and shortages (DaSH) portal.

The document ‘DHSC reporting requirements for medicine shortages and discontinuations’ replaces the best practice guidelines that were published in 2007.

The DaSH portal MAH administrator and user manuals have been updated to include instructions on how to use the new archive function and how to view the new notifications function within the DaSH system.

Setting up administrators on the DaSH portal

Complete the ‘Discontinuations and shortages (DaSH) portal MAH and administrator set-up form’ (above) with details of MAH-nominated DaSH portal users.
Email your completed form to dash@dhsc.gov.uk.

If you cannot access the DaSH portal, contact the Medicine Supply Team at dash@dhsc.gov.uk.

Video guidance

You can watch these video guides on how to use the DaSH portal.

DaSH portal: registration

DaSH portal: password reset

DaSH portal: navigation overview

DaSH portal: navigation overview admin

DaSH portal: reporting a shortage

DaSH portal: reporting a discontinuation

DaSH portal: creating and responding to actions

DaSH portal: action notes and documents

DaSH portal: amending company details

DaSH portal: amend company details

DaSH portal: user management

DaSH portal: archiving

Contacts

If you have any questions about ensuring the flow of medical supplies into the UK, you can contact the relevant government team for your sector:

Medicines contingency (for EoTP-related returns or queries): medicinescontingencyplanning@dhsc.gov.uk
Medicine shortages or discontinuations reporting: dash@dhsc.gov.uk
Medical Devices and Clinical Consumables (MDCC) contingency team: medtech-communications@dhsc.gov.uk
Clinical trials: ctcontingencyplanning@dhsc.gov.uk
Vaccines and countermeasures: immunisation-mb@dhsc.gov.uk
Blood and transplants: transplants@dhsc.gov.uk
Non-clinical goods and services: nhsi.eucpc@nhs.net

Reporting requirements for medicine shortages and discontinuations