...to expect the NHS to procure basic medicines?

My grandma will be 98 this year. I worked out that she (still) has enough paracetomol to last her until she about 120 kittylester based on taking 2-3 times a day every day. The GP didn't take them away as he said they were relatively harmless. Mind you she also has enough sugar and tea to keep a small army going for a few years so perhaps she just has a hoarding nature.

before she went into a home my MiL was for ever sending me to the doctor to pick up another prescription for paracetamol or over to the chemist because her prescribed ones had run out. I could never see how she was getting through so many of them. When we cleared her bungalow out after she left we found boxes and boxes of them in the kitchen cupboards. Some were already out of date, but the rest of the family didn't have to buy any for months!

My prescription says I can have 200 paracetamol at a time. This was from a year ago when I came out of hospital. I still have over 150 from then, and haven't had another lot of them. They are well hidden.

I haven't had half of my co-tenidone this month! They said they'd deliver the rest next week! That was a fortnight ago!

My aunt, who had been head of a nursing school, and kept all her considerable mental powers until death, used to keep all her pills in one big jar. She knew exactly what each was and its dose size and would careful pick out what was needed when required.

Since a lot of her medication was of the 'take this to deal with the side effects of that and the other to deal with the side effects of this', dosage did vary with the strength of the side effects, but given she had several complicated and interacting medical conditions, her own knowledge of her medical conditions and understanding of the drugs she was taking meant that she was nearly 87 when she died.

I have lost count of the times patients come in with their pills all in one bottle, the the trouble is getting to find out what they are out of hours. We technically are not allowed to let them take the tablets themselves as they are not prescribed. Some drugs are time sensitive so how dangerous that is. Allowing the patients to take their own medication under these circumstances is a theoretical dismissal.
As for drugs not being available I currently have to take ISMO 40mg SR as the regular BD preparation is unavailable apparently.
Statins can be problematic switching brands as some are quite distressing if they 'don't suit'

I wonder if the problem is as a result of drugs coming off licence from the original manufacturer

Apparently, the producers of co tenidone are in Gujarat and their production was not up to standard. Wonder when they'll be producing again?
This is the problem with cheap generic drugs.