Life-saving drugs in low supply

ANDREW TILLETT CANBERRAThe West Australian WA public hospitals have run out or their stocks are desperately low of life-saving drugs used to treat cancer, heart attacks and organ transplant

patients. As hospitals around the country were ordered this week to ration penicillin, The West Australian can reveal at least 20 other medicines are also in short supply. Doctors say the

shortages are forcing them to change the drugs they give patients and want pharmaceutical companies penalised for failing to keep up with demand. Health authorities are scrambling to boost

supplies of benzylpenicillin after drug company CSL's order failed to arrive from overseas last week, leaving just a week's supply for one version of the antibiotic. The company,

which is the sole supplier of penicillin in Australia, does not expect to get more of the drug until December. An inventory sheet for a major public hospital obtained by The West Australian

shows chemotherapy and heart drugs, immunosuppressants and blood thinners are among those for which supplies are limited or exhausted. Medical staff are told to use alternatives or different

dosages for some unavailable drugs, not to prescribe some brands for new patients and not to share medicines with other hospitals. Australian Medical Association federal vice-president

Geoff Dobb said doctors had long been worried about failures in the medicine supply chain, which forced some patients to miss out on their preferred treatment. "Sometimes it's a

matter of trying to juggle the treatment they are getting for their medical problems in order to find a way around the particular drug shortage," Professor Dobb said. He said drug

shortages were exacerbated in WA because the State was so far from Melbourne and Sydney, where most drugs were made or delivered from overseas. A WA Health Department spokeswoman said

interruptions to supplies could have a clinical impact but she was confident public hospitals would cope with shortages. "These shortages, when they occur, are already well managed by

using alternatives and carefully monitoring available supplies," she said. In a Medical Journal of Australia article released yesterday, NSW doctor Simon Quilty said hospitals had less

than a month's supply of many vital medicines. Shortages were caused by manufacturing delays, growing international demand and shortages of key ingredients. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM

THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails