THE Ministry of Health and Medical Services has procured 350,000 units of IV fluids for the year 2025 as it continues to grapple with the global shortage of crucial medicines.
Explaining the ministry’s response plans to the global shortage in Parliament yesterday, Minister for Health Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu said the ministry, through the Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services (FPBS), continued to explore different avenues to ensure stock did not reach critical levels.
“The ministry considers medicine to be at a critical stock level when it reaches three months stock availability,” said Dr Lalabalavu.
“During this stage, FPBS takes certain precautions while awaiting the arrival of the next supply.
“With the global shortage of IV fluids, the ministry has to procure IV fluids every month to ensure our supply does not reach critical levels. In doing so, FPBS also makes emergency purchases through requests for quotations (RFQ).
“RFQ is a much faster process hence the frequent orders in small quantities.
“RFQs are done while awaiting the tender quantities and dealing with changing expected time of arrivals from suppliers.”
He said FPBS was also exploring other markets to purchase IV fluids from.
“Therefore, to improve supply, FPBS have sourced IV fluids from other manufacturers in the international markets.
Dr Lalabalavu says FPBS continues negotiations through its contracted vendor whereby a consignment of about 100,000 is expected to be in this week, sufficient for the next five to six months.
