NOS
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 21:15
Pharmacists are very concerned about the shortage of essential antibiotics in the Netherlands. “We were counting the tablets on Friday to see if we could get through the week,” says hospital pharmacist Nicole Hunfeld of Erasmus MC.
RTL News today reported shortages of two essential antibiotics. According to Hunfeld, there are now four. This not only concerns antibiotics used for urinary tract infections or difficult-to-treat bone infections, but also antibiotics used for respiratory infections, among other things, and which are administered in the hospital via an IV.
In addition to being a hospital pharmacist, Hunfeld is also vice-chairman of the Royal Dutch Society for the Promotion of Pharmacy and took a look at the antibiotic stock before Christmas. “It is almost impossible to do anymore. We are continuously informing doctors and working together to obtain sufficient antibiotics,” says Hunfeld.
Which antibiotics are in short supply?
- co-trimoxazole (prescribed for respiratory infections and as a precaution for people undergoing a transplant to prevent infection)
- minocycline (mainly used as a backup antibiotic, for people for whom a previous antibiotic has not worked sufficiently, usually for skin infections)
- piperacillin/tazobactam (given via infusion in the hospital for a respiratory infection or after major abdominal surgery)
- metronidazole (widely used, for example, after abdominal operations and for certain forms of diarrhea and tropical infections)
“The shortage means that, for example, medicines have to be imported. That takes a long time and is more expensive. If importation does not work, doctors have to deviate from the standard antibiotic schedules,” says Hunfeld.
The standard antibiotic schedules have been drawn up with great care for the best possible treatment. If doctors have to deviate from this, they will have to find alternatives together with pharmacists. One of these, according to Hunfeld, is that doctors are forced to administer an antibiotic through an IV. “That means people have to be hospitalized and keep a bed occupied.”
Medicine shortage
The shortage of medicines is not new: this summer, pharmacists already sounded the alarm when the medicine shortage threatened to rise to a record level. “When will this shortage stop?” Hunfeld wonders out loud.
According to the hospital pharmacist, everyone is now putting a lot of energy into looking for emergency solutions. Also because it is not clear what will make the medicine shortage even more acute. “We are dependent on the other side of the world, the factories are not in Europe. We also do not know why medicine production has come to a standstill there, that is anything but transparent.”
2023-12-27 20:15:41
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