KEY POINTS:
Hospitals are about to run out of an emergency life-saving drug, drawing condemnation from the country's largest medical group about the Government's emphasis on cost savings.
All stocks of 1:1000 adrenalin solution in New Zealand expire at the end of next month, and a manufacturing problem at supplier Mayne Pharma's German factory means the stock cannot be replaced immediately.
The shortage has sent health officials scrambling for alternative supplies of the drug, which is used in emergencies such as heart attacks and life-threatening allergic reactions.
Late yesterday, drug funding agency Pharmac announced it had signed a contract with AstraZeneca in Australia to get a recently approved version of adrenalin into New Zealand. Deputy medical director Dr Dilky Rasiah said the stock would be available "shortly".
She did not know the cost of this new deal.
It is understood supplies could arrive within weeks.
But Medical Association chairman Dr Ross Boswell said this should not have happened. "This situation has only arisen because of the Government's obsession to cheapen medical care by screwing down suppliers' prices with sole-supply contracts."
Critics believe Pharmac is obsessed with forcing drug prices down, but also say it is under-funded. Pharmac's main technique for keeping costs down is to negotiate "sole-supply" contracts, funding just one of a range of similar medicines.
Mayne Pharma is the only supplier of adrenalin to hospitals, but is not on a sole-supply contract. Pharmac said other firms chose not to supply the product because of the relatively small volume New Zealand needed.
Dr Boswell said patient safety and security of supply should be given far more weighting. "What we have is a system that forces all the eggs into the same basket. And then we get surprised when they get dropped occasionally."
He said it was sensible to maintain an alternative supplier of critical medicines. "Two different companies are unlikely to run into the same difficulties at the same time."
National Party Health spokesman Tony Ryall said the Government must explain this latest debacle.
"Most Kiwis would think this only happens in Third World countries. It's time for Labour to sort out this mess. Patients must come first."
Auckland City Hospital said it had stocks of adrenalin on hand, and had arranged for alternative supplies from America.
