When is National Essential Medicines Shortage Awareness Day? This day will take place on September 8 of each calendar year.
What is National Essential Medicines Shortage Awareness Day? COVID-19 has forever changed the world. However, another major pressing issue facing American society is drug shortages. In 2018, the American Medical Association announced that medicine shortages now pose an urgent public health crisis in the United States. While medicine shortages have been a persistent challenge for the U.S. healthcare system for more than a decade, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed further vulnerabilities in the overall U.S. hospital supply chain, particularly regarding generic essential injectable medications.
There are over 100 essential generic medicines and/or their ingredients whose production has been outsourced to foreign countries, especially China and India and are at risk of shortages. Many of these critical medicines are needed for treating patients with Coronavirus related illnesses and are made from active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) that are made only in China. Some of these medicines only have a 60-day national supply.
A 2019 survey of 330 U.S. hospitals, including 29 pediatric hospitals, demonstrated that medicine shortages have disproportionately and uniquely had a major impact on pediatric hospitals. Essential injectable medicine shortages cause medication errors, compromise, or delay medical procedures, and replace first-line therapies with alternative medications. The economic effects of medicine shortages are significant, especially sterile injectable medicine products with the cost impact of medicine shortages estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars annually for health systems across the United States.
This day has been solidified as a national holiday to bring awareness to businesses, organizations, families and individuals of the ongoing epidemic, and with Phlow sponsoring, we can begin to educate the public so that no healthcare professional ever has to open an empty drug box during a health emergency.
Why is this day being celebrated or observed? The first reason Phlow created this holiday is to raise awareness of the ongoing crisis that is essential medicine shortages. It is a very pressing issue that if more individuals and healthcare professionals are made aware of this dire situation, the outcome could provide hospitalized patients with the immediate and correct care they need.
The second reason this holiday will be utilized is to educate as many people as possible, no matter the age, on this pressing issue. Phlow finds the essential medicine shortage crisis of the utmost importance, and with people not having the essential medicines they need mass delays in patient care are the result, and it may even create an economic emergency.
The third reason Phlow has created this holiday nationally, is for individuals of all ages to begin to create a discussion on this issue which we then hope that it will begin to spark change. The way more and more people hear about what is going on in the world is through “word of mouth”. Our goal is that a variety healthcare professional such as doctors and nurses or even lawmakers create conversation with students, professors, and parents so that change can be made for generations to come.
How should this day be celebrated or observed? One of the best ways to spread the word of the essential medicine shortage crisis on “National Essential Medicines Shortage Awareness” Day is on social media. Hashtags, posts, testimonials, quotes, “calls to action”, and infographics on social media are some of the best ways to make as many individuals as possible aware of this issue. Whether it be in-person or virtually, having first-hand testimonials from healthcare professionals discuss their experiences with pediatric drug shortages is another great way to educate the public. Phlow recognizes the importance of this issue and how many people have had emotional and serious connections to the essential medicine shortage crisis and if their stories are made known to the public, it can hopefully begin to cause a spark of change.
Pharmaceutical organizations and companies can also hold press conferences to announce the holiday and their awareness of the issue of essential medicine shortages and their plan to help solve this ongoing crisis.
Who created this day? This day was created in May 2021 by Phlow Corp.