B.C. has weathered the storm of the nationwide injectable drug shortage better than other provinces because all the province's hospitals are tied to a regional health authority which co-ordinates supply purchases through Heath Shared Services BC (HSSBC).
Sharing of drug supplies among the health authorities in B.C. has helped avoid or alleviate shortages of some essential drugs.
"We have used Heath Shared Services BC as a co-ordinating mechanism to deal with the shortage since we found out about it on Feb. 17," said Deborah Dunn-Roy, HSSBC's executive director of stakeholder relations.
"HSSBC contracts on behalf of all the health authorities, so it wasn't like we had six organizations scrambling to try to deal with this on their own. In some provinces, hospitals are trying to deal with this on a hospital-by-hospital basis. Some hospitals in Ontario weren't even aware of the situation and we'd already been dealing with it for a week."
The combined buying power of the HSSBC creates a large economy of scale that results in cost savings on drug purchases individual hospitals would be less likely to achieve.
HSSBC receives daily reports through consultations with the six health authorities to determine drug supplies and identify anticipated shortages. Northern Health hospitals helped replenish the dwindling stock of a drug used in coronary bypass surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster and health authorities are being encouraged to share supplies of drugs that are not in high demand locally.
HSSBC and the Ministry of Health are working with Alberta and Saskatchewan to try to find other sources of prescription drugs in other countries. In consultation with Health Canada, the western provinces are also trying to fast-track the approval process needed for those manufacturers to sell alternate drugs to Canadian health authorities.
Prompted by the scaled-back production of drug manufacturer, Sandoz Canada, which supplies 90 per cent of the country's injectable narcotics and antibiotics, the House of Commons voted unanimously two weeks ago to pass a bill that requires all of the country's prescription drug manufacturers or suppliers to issue prompt warnings to Health Canada and the provincial and territorial governments of any anticipated disruptions in drug production. The new policy will also expedite the approval process for several alternate drugs.
On Thursday, Health Canada issued a warning to hospitals after it was discovered several vials of a powerful, injectable heart produced by Sandoz Canada, although labelled correctly, were improperly packaged in a box of morphine at a Toronto hospital.
The drug shortage has forced cancellation of elective surgeries in some parts of the country.
