Windsor Star reports on drug shortages

Posted June 17th in The Windsor Star‘s healthcare section:

Kaye Brown says she constantly fights fatigue because she hasn’t had her prescribed injections of iron or vitamin B12 since January.

She’s not the only one having trouble getting medicine. A rotating drug shortage has become routine in Ontario, meaning hospitals, pharmacies and patients often scramble when certain medications go through bouts of short supply.

“I feel frustrated,” said Brown, who lives in a long-term care home in Windsor. “I feel like the present government doesn’t care about us seniors in homes or out in the community. We’re not important enough.”

Brown has been told that the drugs she needs are on back order, so she has been taking B12 in pill form everyday — which she says is not as effective or as convenient as a once-a-month shot.

“The injection would give me more strength and I would be able to do more things,” said the 61-year-old widower who has fibromyalgia and arthritis and uses a wheelchair. “I don’t have enough energy to do what I would like to do. I could fall asleep just after breakfast.”

read the article at The Windsor Star…