IV fluid shortage will remain for the rest of 2024, but health ministers say critical supply shortfall easing
A shortage of IV fluids is set to last for the rest of the year. An emergency response group of health ministers met today, vowing "unprecedented collaboration" to ensure patient safety.
Transcript
00:00Pressure has been mounting on health authorities to help guarantee the supply of these IV fluids,
00:08including saline and sodium lactate solution. This is critical stuff. It's helped to treat
00:14dehydration, sepsis and help patients recovering in hospital. It's been in short supply because
00:21of manufacturing constraints and shipping problems, leading some doctors to ration and
00:26some patients being forced to spend longer recovering in hospital. So what's the fix?
00:33Well, health ministers from around the country have met today and they've agreed to
00:37better share information about how much stock they've got and take a closer look at procurement.
00:43The big lesson from this moving forward is understanding what are critical medical items
00:49and having a plan for either stockpiling them or manufacturing them here in the future
00:54so we don't go through these uncertainties again.
00:56The shortage is expected to remain until the end of the year.