The government placed aspirin on its export ban list to safeguard UK supplies as chemists across the nation are running dry. The National Pharmacy Association chair Olivier Picard featured on BBC Radio Four's Inside Health programme this morning discussing the impact of the issue on patients.

And he revealed that in his own chemists he is experiencing difficulties obtaining the drugs, stating: "It is hit and miss with pharmacies at the moment. I have one pharmacy with a trickle. I was in a pharmacy earlier where I asked 'do you have any aspirin' and my pharmacy said 'I have 16 tablets left in a pack of 100 everything else has gone.'".

"I have another pharmacy which has a few packs of 28which will probably keep us going for a couple of days and then that is that."

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One particular dose which is used by potentially millions across Britain to manage the risks of chronic conditions is running short, he stated: "The shortage is around the 75mg aspirin which is sometimes called 'baby aspirin' which is take by people with a history of strokes, heart disease, chronic kidney disease and some people with diabetes. It literally is as a stroke prevention. The 300mg aspirin are not in short supply. They are generally used for pain or for fever and they are readily available."

Presenter James Gallagher asked what impact it was having. Mr Picard said: "You look at sheer panic on their face primarily because they know the importance of taking aspirin and they've never had a supply issue. That person is saying 'I'm about to run out what am I going to do then' and that is really the difficult question to answer because pharmacies are not able to change a prescription and therefore by law even if I have a different strength of a medication or an equivalent medication on the shelf I have to send the patient back to the doctor to have something else prescribed."

When questioned about why Britain has ended up facing a shortage, Mr Picard explained: "The supply chain is complicated and aspirin manufacturers are not solely UK companies. they are European-wide companies and they manufacture for a number of countries. In the UK we have some of the cheapest generic prices in Europe and the government is trying to prevent spending too much on drugs and therefore as the number of prescriptions increases the price has to come down.

"What that has done is put pressure on the manufacturers to produce their drugs cheaper and cheaper and it has come to a point where the manufacturers are now saying the UK marked doesn't give us a good enough return and therefore we're no longer going to import our drugs into the UK and instead concentrating on other EU markets such as Germany, France or Italy which are paying a lot more for the aspirin.

"Unfortunately today we have a list of over 250 items, of course aspirin is on that list, there are some blood pressure medication and also antidepressants. Lots of medications that are affected and the list is growing simply because the prices that we are offering manufactueres in this country have come to be slow low that the manufacturers are pulling out of the UK market. It's as simple as that."

He suggested one interim solution was to grant pharmacies the authority to modify prescriptions, and that anyone affected should return to their GP to request an alternative be prescribed. In a question to the Health Department, Tory MP Mark Pritchard asked Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting: "What steps he is taking to (a) increase the availability of aspirin and (b) normalise aspirin supply chains."

Dr Zubir Ahmed, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care), said: "The Department is aware of a recent disruption to the supply of aspirin dispersible tablets and are working with suppliers to understand the causes and aid a return to normal supply as soon as possible. Supply issues have been addressed, and stock is regularly being made available for pharmacies to order.

"We are working with all partners in the supply chain, including manufacturers and United Kingdom distributors, to ensure maximum accessibility to pharmacies and hospitals irrespective of where they are in the country. The Department will continue to monitor the situation and expects supplies to return to normal over the coming weeks."

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