Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title Intravenous fluid shortage sparks 10-fold jump in costs Degree of recognition National Media name/outlet The Australian Media type Print Country/Territory Australia Date 16/08/24 Description Healthcare providers are paying from five to 10 times as much for imported IV fluid bags as they were prior to the shortage that is now causing chaos in hospitals, as medicos call on the federal government to incentivise a local manufacturing industry for critical medical supplies...
“It might not be as profitable for a company to manufacture medical supplies in Australia but Australia does need to have a guaranteed access to a core set of supplies and that might mean incentivising manufacturing onshore,” said chair of Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ expert committee for quality care, Mark Morgan.
“Australia needs the capacity to manufacture essentials onshore, even if this means using taxpayers’ money to build incentives. Australia should take a disaster planning approach to essential supplies.”
Professor Morgan, who is also professor of general practice at Bond University, added: “A planned, responsive, staged alerting system for supplies that might become shortages, and then do become shortages, I think a lot can be learnt from the disaster planning we have in this country and the same should happen for medical supplies.”Producer/Author Stephen Rice and Natasha Robinson URL https://www.theaustralian.com.au/health/intravenous-fluid-shortage-sparks-10fold-jump-in-costs/news-story/7d556ceeacf3656b73e3700e3a13e797 Persons Mark Morgan