Statement from the Ontario Hospital Association regarding the Sandoz Drug Supply Shortage

TORONTO, March 6, 2012 /CNW/ - The production changes at Sandoz Canada have reduced the supply of injectable drugs in many of Ontario's hospitals.

The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), which acts as the public voice for the province's 151 public hospitals, has been connecting regularly with its members, Sandoz Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), the Cardiac Care Network (CCN), and Health Canada to gain a better understanding of the situation and to ensure hospitals have the information they need to execute plans for responding to these shortages while at the same time continuing to provide high quality care to patients.

At present time, we know that hospitals are:

• Tracking their usage of Sandoz-supplied drugs and doing their best to manage existing supply levels appropriately
• Communicating regularly with their staff to ensure timely, accurate information is shared across their organizations
• Preparing to cope with the supply shortage should it become a problem over the long-term

In some cases, hospitals have activated their Incident Management System (IMS) plans - a standard practice for contingency planning in response to external situations that have an impact on hospital operations.

It is unclear, at this time, what the direct impact will be on patients; however, providing excellent patient care continues as a priority for hospitals in these types of situations. As always, hospitals are doing everything they can to ensure their patients have access to the high quality care they expect and deserve.

A provincial action plan is critical to seeing hospitals and patients through the drug supply shortage, and we look forward to participating in its development.

The OHA will continue to keep its stakeholders apprised of information related to the Sandoz drug supply shortage as it becomes available.

contact Amy Ouellette, OHA Public Affairs at 416-205-1433 or [email protected].