I was interviewed and quoted in the article, “Pandemic challenging Australia’s medication supply chains”, written by Ms Morgan Liotta, published in newsGP.

Liotta M. Pandemic challenging Australia’s medication supply chains. newsGP. 2021 January 20. Available from: https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/pandemic-challenging-australia-s-medication-supply [PDF]

Quotation

Dr Michael Tam, GP, Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at UNSW Sydney, and RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care member, warned of potential substitutes.

‘There are not always good choices of substitute medications,’ he told newsGP.

‘Short-term changes risk real patient harms, which could be from more minor issues like mild medication side-effects, to more serious ones such as poor control of the disease.

‘Medication shortages are problematic and disruptive to chronic disease care.’

…

‘This potentially increases the anxiety and administrative load for GPs, and the patients they care for,’ Dr Tam said.

‘For instance, it wouldn’t be uncommon to contact multiple pharmacies to try to find one that may still have some of the specific medication on their shelves, though, this might just be kicking the can down the road if the medication shortage is sustained.’

…

While he is unable to offer a solution to the issue of medication shortages, Dr Tam observed that more focus is needed on supply chains in general.

‘Interruptions to the supply of commonly used medications have occurred in recent years, even prior to COVID-19,’ he said.

‘My view is that there really needs to be some investment in the security of our medicines supply chains in Australia.’