Doctors are becoming increasingly alarmed about a critical shortage of IV fluid in Australia. The ABC has obtained internal emails from one major Sydney hospital, which say patients left with little or no IV fluid had ended up with hypotension and dehydration. The Australian Medical Association says fluids need to be distributed appropriately to stop the shortage from worsening.
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00:00One of the things is we need to make sure that the stocks we do have are appropriately
00:06distributed and that they can be used in cases of great need.
00:10A concern that all of us have is that if these fluids really fall into short supply, it's
00:16going to mean we can't do planned surgery and we already know there's a massive backlog
00:20after the pandemic.
00:21So ensuring we have adequate sources to be able to provide for the healthcare needs across
00:27the nation is important.
00:28Now the government's working on this at the moment, but I don't think they can make fluids
00:32magically appear.
00:33The Therapeutic Goods Administration approves their use, but in fact they have to be purchased
00:38and bought from distributors who largely bring them into the country.
00:41There's some manufacturing in Australia.
00:43I'm actually touring a manufacturing plant to see what's going on next week.
00:48But making sure that we have adequate supplies if they're being imported from alternative
00:53sources is really important.
00:55And Australia is at the very far end of a very long and sometimes shaky logistic chain.
01:00So I think this should really spur us to make sure these sort of shortages don't happen
01:04in the future.