Their door intensive care unit in public hospitals The well-known shortages of medicines, which have long worried the townspeople, pharmacists and doctors, “gone away”. So, after a “safari” in which many parents dabbled in antibiotics or painkillers for their children, as well as diabetics’ anxiety about the safety of Ozempic, resuscitators, in turn, are worried about the adequacy of the drugs they need to care for their children. Patients.

OUR Sofia PurikiNurse A’ in the intensive care unit of the Sotiria hospital describes to “K” a picture of deficiency in the intensive care unit of the hospital where she works: in injectable furosemide (SS. diuretic). In some cases, we replace it with another generic drug, which, however, acts on a different place in the kidney and does not give quite the results that we need. Or we are changing the way the diuretic is administered, which also does not have the same effects as the injectable form.”

Ms. Puriki notes that other medicines that are not available in Sotirias’ intensive care unit or that are available in the pharmacy in very limited quantities or which are difficult for doctors to find are medicines containing the active substances albumin (ss protein), various feeding medicines (in depending on the nature of the patient’s condition), nutritional supplements, and intravenous antihypertensive agents.

A complex image is also transmitted Olga Oikonomu, Director of NHS Pharmacist at Jennimata Hospital and Vice President of the Hellenic Scientific Society for Economics and Health Policy. First of all, she states that Gennimatas supplied furosemide to the nearby Sotiriya hospital, as well as to other institutions.

According to Ms. Oikonomou, besides injectable furesimide, other substances/drugs that are not available or are used under stress from the pharmacy stock of the hospital, heparin (including antithrombotic drugs), cortisones of various types but also With globulin.

“This is a serious problem, since there are no generics for everything. medicines. We hear that IFET (Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Technology) has made an introduction and that they will be arriving next week, but we are interested in having a specific delivery date and also making sure we don’t run into a problem again quickly.” — notes the same.

The global problem of drug production and the necessary logistics for intensive care units

However, according to experts in this field, in such critical periods, which have become more frequent in recent years, “surgical” distribution of drugs to departments is simply necessary. Source “K” in a large private hospital confirms the lack of furosemide and heparin. As the person who spoke to us notes: “We knew that the production of furosemide would drop sharply within a month and a half.

However, our hospital’s central pharmacy gives a constant overview of stocks and provides information 24 hours a day on both the average weekly drug intake and how much drug is left. This also leads us to handle drugs very carefully, ensuring a constant flow.“.

Of course, logistics and competent management do not change the essence of the problem, namely the shortage or reduction in the production of medicines, problems of a global scale.

This measurement is also confirmed by an e-mail (held by “K”), through which a well-known pharmaceutical company requested permission from the EMA – European Medicines Agency – in November last year to “extend” the expiration date for specific anti-thrombotic drugs, the lots were expiring in the same month. The European organization gave a positive opinion extending the duration of the antithrombotic agent in question, while the pharmaceutical company also informed the aforementioned private hospital.

However, the same person notes that in specific drugs, such as heparin, its particularly low price on the Greek market plays a large role in its absence in our country, which leads to parallel exports from some pharmacies.

Commenting in turn on the question of the correct “reserve” in each ICU, h Maria Theodorakopoulou, President of the Hellenic Intensive Care Society and Director of ESY at the 1st Intensive Care Clinic of Evangelismos Hospital, emphasizes that sometimes there is a shortage of medicines. “However, intensive care units are making sure they are staffed as they also operate around the clock. This supply partially covered us all this time, which was not enough for specific preparations. But this does not mean that the issue of drug shortages should not be addressed at a higher level.”

Mass ordering drugs and the Greek initiative

However, the health minister Thanos PleurisIn an interview with K, they noted that the deficit in hospitals is currently being restored. “About 300,000 furesimide preparations have already begun to enter hospitals. We have also placed orders for anti-thrombotics,” the minister said, acknowledging that the very low price of heparin in Greece – at least twice as high as in many countries abroad – is a problem, which, however, will be corrected. soon.near future to restrict exports.

He also mentioned the ministry’s initiative to send a letter to Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakid at the beginning of the year about the need to find solutions to this critical issue at the EU level.

As he highlights: “Greece yesterday signed, together with 18 other countries, a Belgian non-paper that aims to improve the security of drug availability in the EU. This non-paper, entitled “Improving the security of drug supply in Europe”, which is based on the views we expressed last January, notes that The EU is facing severe shortages of essential medicines such as antibiotics, thrombolytics, insulins and, to a lesser extent, antipyretics and painkillers.. The problem of shortages is not new, and the causes are varied, from unexpected increases in demand, to production and quality problems, to the closure or relocation of pharmaceutical companies outside of Europe, to problems in supply chains, and then to regulatory and compensation policies. but also with parallel exports.

In addition, the minister emphasizes that “given the complexity of the problems and the risks associated with them, the non-paper emphasizes that the EU should take more decisive measures to improve the security of the drug supply.”

Among the proposals adopted, he clarifies, were the creation of a voluntary solidarity mechanism within the EMA to temporarily alleviate acute shortages in Member States, the creation of a European list of essential medicines whose supply chains, production and value creation should be monitored, and finally, an investigation into the law on reducing dependence on critical drugs and ingredients, especially for products where there are only a few manufacturers or countries.