Co-codamol supplies in Scotland will be ‘limited’ until June

Co-codamol 30mg/500mg tablets will be in limited supply from early February until early June 2026, the Scottish Government has announced.

Paracetamol 500mg tablets remain available to support a full uplift in demand, and Codeine 30mg tablets are available to support a partial uplift in demand.

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Healthcare professionals have been advised not to initiate new patients on co-codamol 30mg/500mg tablets until the supply issues have been resolved.

Co-codamol 30mg/500mg capsules are still available and they can support a partial uplift in demand from mid-April 2026.  Other strengths and forms of co-codamol are available but cannot support an uplift in demand.

Where patients have an insufficient supply to last until the re-supply date, prescribers have been told to review pain control to determine if treatment is still required; if the decision to stop treatment is made, they should avoid abrupt cessation of therapy.

Where pain control is still needed, prescribers should establish whether the lowest effective dose of co-codamol 30mg/500mg tablets is being used and if the codeine component is still required. They should also assess the appropriateness of switching to separate components of Paracetamol and/or Codeine.

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Co-codamol tablets are used to relieve moderate to severe pain, and drug withdrawal symptoms may occur if the medication is stopped too quickly.

Last week, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) issued a similar medicines supply notification about co-codamol tablet shortages.

Prescribers have also been reminded to avoid switching patients onto strong opioids for chronic pain.

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Across the UK, many patients are prescribed harmful opioid doses for non-cancer pain and the World Health Organization estimated that 125,000 people died of opioid overdose in 2019.

Yet pharmacists can play an important role in opioid deprescribing. At WellBN GP practice in Brighton, patients on high-dose opioids were identified through prescribing data and invited for joint reviews. As a result of this intervention, several patients reduced their dose significantly and a number successfully stopped opioids altogether.