Posted on 02/29/2012 12:37:51 PM PST by surroundedbyblue
I"m a nurse anesthetist, and I just got a work-related email from my boss. Basically it said "please conserve midazolam, fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone.....supplies are CRITICALLY short & the hospital is struggling to maintain supplies".
Um, ok. The last time I checked, this was the United States, not Crapistan. How are we "critically short" on all of the major anesthesia drugs that we use??? Am I supposed to offer the patient a bullet to bite?
Are there any FReepers out there who have ties to the pharm industry and can explain this? Speaking with others throughout the hospital, I have learned there are critical drug shortages in the ICU, ER, and oncology areas.
Alonzo & Jimmy the Tooth are going to become America’s premier anesthetists at this rate.
My last physical I was talking about Obamacare with my doctor.
His take: “If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it’s free.”
The times I smoked marijuana it wasn't for pain. I never thought - Ouch my knee hurts I better smoke some marijuana.
Creation of new laws and regulations which shut down profitable businesses and they are then bought up by large conglomerates. Regulations also control the quantity of supply to force higher ‘costs’. The government and big pharma then become ‘partners’ in big business, and this health care plan is just a way or ‘dictating’ what the markets will be in supplies so that the large conglomerates do not have to deal with such things as ‘competition’ and a changing market.
It’s all about the money, honey.
I must respectfully disagree with you.
Yes the drugs we are short on in the OR are the cheaper, generic, off-patent stuff, people are also reporting shortages on the swanky, high-end cancer drugs.
Truly, it seems we are short on almost everything. After 14 years of nursing, I’ve never seen anything like this. There’s been a steady shortage of meds for at least the last two years, and it seems to be getting worse, affecting more drugs. It’s quite unnerving and makes me want a new job. I can’t sit by & watch people in excruciating pain after surgery, or have total recall of their procedure because we are short on midaz. That s**t ain’t right.
Yup. They're from the gubment and they're here to help.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CDER/ManualofPoliciesProcedures/ucm073579.pdf
The gubment has gotten out of control. It needs to be destroyed and rebuilt.
There may be no conspiracy on the side of the Drug Companies, but there’s one hell of a conspiracy by those who wish to nationalize them.
Can we say Hugo Obama?
Never imagined this would be an issue, thanks for the head's up ...
Send every patient a block of email addresses for the white house, HHS, all members of the house and senate and tell them to thank them for adding to their pain and suffering. Remind the patients that who they vote for has consequences. Voting for a democrat will ultimately bring pain, suffering, deprivation, and ultimately death to you and your families.
FUBO & FAD
Being the recipient of several major surgeries over the past few years, this gives me great personal concern.
Hopefully, it will be folks like you that find a safe way to make this public and get it turned around.
I went in for heart surgery. I suffered a stroke during surgery and contracted MRSA. Instead of a 6-8 day stay, I was in the hospital for two very long and extremely painful months.
Had it not been for morphine and oxy’s, I doubt that I would have made it. As it was, there were times I had thoughts of wanting to die rather than deal with the insane pain.
People will not just suffer from more pain, it may cause some of them not to fight for life.
Thank you for what you do...
Drug shortages have increased dramatically in the U.S. over the past six years, particularly for generic injected drugs, which are the workhorses of hospitals but are difficult to make and produce little profit for drug makers.
The shortages are caused primarily by problems with sterility and other serious issues that have led to shutdowns of production lines and occasionally entire factories. In addition, consolidation among generic drug manufacturers, as well as manufacturers deciding to end production of marginally profitable drugs, has led to decreased capacity. That means when one manufacturer suddenly stops production, the small number of others making a drug can't quickly pick up slack.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/21/fda-new-suppliers-to-ease-2-cancer-drug-shortages/#ixzz1no4GQcCq
This has apparently being going on for a while.
http://news.nurse.com/article/20111204/NATIONAL02/112120014/-1/frontpage
Basically it said “please conserve midazolam, fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone.....supplies are CRITICALLY short & the hospital is struggling to maintain supplies”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simple
This means the hospital has squandered the budget with lavish dinners and expensive trips for the top administrators, and has no money left for basic needs like midazolam, fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone.
“...supplies are CRITICALLY short & the hospital is struggling to maintain supplies”.
should read....
“BUDGET MONEY is CRITICALLY short & the hospital is struggling to maintain supplies”.
My guess is these are all drugs which are off patents and the newest drug is 100 times as expensive but only mildly more effective.
On The Road to Socialist Utopia (starring Bobama Hope and Bing-a-ling Biden), one crisis after another has to occur so the masses will beg the government to save them.
If no crisis is on the horizon, manufacture one.
Leni
‘Tis true that these are off-patent & cheap, but there are no replacements for them. They are the tried & true, irreplaceable drugs.
I’d say the government is stockpiling anticipating SHTF.
Let’s see....how do you drive up costs??? Hmm....creating a shortage is one way.
You mean other than being run by crooks?
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