Incidents of doctors, hospitals, and emergency rooms being forced to make life threatening decisions regarding their patients is on the rise, due to a shortage in drugs.
Medication shortfalls have gone up more than 400 percent between 2001-2014, according to a study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.
Frequently physicians have found there aren’t enough anesthetics, painkillers, antibiotics and cancer medications for everyone who needs them, so they have to make choices, as reported by The New York Times.
“We’ve got that tragic choice: two kids in front of you, (and) you only have enough for one. How do you choose,” said Dr. Yoram Unguru, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore.
A group of pediatric cancer specialists has just released rationing guidelines in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Some hospitals have committees who decide which patients receive the drugs, and how much they get.
Overweight patients are at a disadvantage, because if a medication is in short supply, they may only get the standard dose, instead of the extra amount needed to accommodate for their size.
The other downfall is when a patient has to wait for life saving surgery, because the drug they need is on back order, or is forced to take a less suitable medication.
The American Society of Heath-System Pharmacists claims there are more than 150 drugs that are in short supply. Pharmaceutical companies consider profits when deciding to manufacturer certain drugs, which has led to rationing. Sometimes there is a delay in producing the drug, but in almost half the cases, the manufacturer does not explain the delay.
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