Delivery bottlenecks of drugs in clinics

Delivery bottlenecks for medicines - hospitals are missing appropriate drugs

12/11/2013

Germany clinics complain about supply shortages in drugs. This is evident from the progress report of the German Crane Hooking Company (DKG).

Accordingly, the DKG questioned 20 pharmacies that supply more than 140 clinics in Germany with medication. On average, the hospital pharmacies were unable to provide about 20 medicines in time. In the same period of the previous year, an average of 25 medicines were reported as not available each month. This is a slight improvement, but in 39 percent of cases no alternative drug was able to be delivered. This is significantly more than in the previous year. The problems relate to all drug groups. If there are supply bottlenecks with cytostatic drugs (anticancer agents), this is of course a particularly serious problem. For antibiotics, physicians would have to weigh in part which patient needed the drug more urgently. According to the definition of the BfArM, a supply shortage will occur if pharmaceuticals and medical devices can not be delivered for more than two weeks.

„We are very worried because supply shortages are also drugs for oncology and intensive care“, a DKG spokesman told the Deutsches Ärzteblatt. Since pharmaceutical manufacturers have reported supply bottlenecks only on a voluntary basis, hospitals are now demanding that a binding notification be made. At the end of April, a registration register for the BfArM was specially set up for this purpose. "Our urgent recommendation to politicians is to voluntarily change the register of drug bottlenecks to binding," said DKG CEO Georg Baum. As a reason for the bottlenecks, the pharmaceutical manufacturers state the timely production in Asia and low inventories. (Fr)

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