Few medicines are as ordinary as aspirin, which millions of people take every day to lower their risk of a heart attack or stroke.

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Alongside co-codamol for pain relief and ramipril for high blood pressure, it is among the most frequently prescribed medicines in the country. Yet a new Freedom of Information analysis from UCL’s Global Business School for Health shows that hospitals across England have been running short of all three.

Of the 60 NHS trusts that responded, 62% reported shortages of aspirin between December 2025 and March 2026. Co-codamol was disrupted at 31% of trusts and ramipril at 16%. And 92% of the trusts did not have a formal contingency plan for any of the three. When medicines this basic go missing this widely, the obvious question is why.

Faced with empty supply cupboards, trusts did what the NHS so often does and coped. Patients were switched to different versions of the same medicine, and Frimley........

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