Emergency depot
The emergency depot is a compilation of medicines and other common pharmacy goods that pharmacies in Germany have to keep in stock for emergencies or be able to procure at short notice. The obligation to keep an emergency depot arises from § 15 of the pharmacy operating rules and relates to drugs that are rarely used, but may be essential for life.
Until 2012, the emergency depots almost exclusively contained antidotes , but the stockpiling of funds for palliative emergencies was not expressly required. The list was revised when the pharmacy operating rules were revised. Most of the antidotes have been deleted due to a lack of practical relevance; instead, the focus is now on the care of palliative and anaphylactic emergencies.
inventory
Must be available in every pharmacy at all times:
- Non-opioid analgesic
- Opioid for injection, e.g. E.g .: morphine ampoules
- Immediate-release oral opioid
- Modified-release opioid, e.g. E.g .: morphine 10 mg prolonged-release tablets
- Glucocorticosteroids for injection
- Antihistamines for injection
- Glucocorticoids for inhalation for the treatment of smoke gas intoxication, e.g. E.g .: beclomethasone and others
- Antifoam agents for the treatment of surfactant intoxications
- Medicinal charcoal , 50 grams powder for suspension
- Tetanus vaccine
- Tetanus Hyperimmune Globulin 250 IU
- Epinephrine (other names: suprarenine, adrenaline) for injection
- 0.9% saline solution for injection
- Bandages , disposable syringes and needles, catheters , giving sets for infusions and products for blood glucose determination
In addition, additional funds must be available at short notice at any time. This is solved by the regional emergency depots of the pharmacy chambers, which are usually located at selected clinics. These include:
- Botulism antitoxin from horse
- Diphtheria antitoxin from horses
- Polyvalent immune serum against snake venom from European snake species
- Rabies vaccine
- Rabies immunoglobulin
- Varicella-zoster immunoglobulin
- C1 esterase inhibitor
- Hepatitis B immunoglobulin
- Hepatitis B vaccine
- Digitalis antitoxin
In the same list, the pharmacy operating regulations also mention opioids in transdermal and transmucosal dosage forms. However, these can not be kept in stock in the pharmacy chambers' emergency depots for reasons of narcotics law. Therefore, in the end, these opioids must de facto be kept in stock in every pharmacy, unless the pharmacy manager can prove any other source of supply that is permissible under narcotics law and accessible at all times.
Not all regional emergency depots have all of the resources listed. The withdrawal of medication from the regional emergency depots is only possible for pharmacies on the basis of a doctor's prescription. Patients can only obtain the funds from a public pharmacy on duty.
Web links
- Constanze Schäfer: About antidotes, emergency depots and more on yumpu.com , Die PTA in der Apotheke 34 (2005), Issue 8, Umschau Zeitschriftenverlag.
- Information from the Hessian Chamber of Pharmacists on the emergency depot