"Syringes and needles are sold out online, so we can't place orders. With what we have left, we can barely last two weeks," said a staff member at a clinic in Sujeong-gu, Seongnam.
The medical field is facing an emergency as the U.S.-Iran war has continued for over a month and the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked despite a ceasefire. Supply problems with naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, have disrupted the supply of basic medical products including syringes, particularly at local clinics. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has warned it will "strictly respond to unfair practices such as hoarding and collusion related to medical products," but practitioners say they see little real effect from government measures.
According to medical industry sources Wednesday, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and regional medical associations have been flooded with complaints from physician members about shortages of syringes, needles, IV lines, gloves, and other medical consumables. With most frequently used medical consumables produced from petrochemical feedstock, anxiety has intensified after the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Iran.
Clinic-level medical institutions are experiencing particular chaos. Unlike large hospitals that typically maintain two to three months of medical product inventory, clinics do not usually stockpile relatively inexpensive items such as IV fluids and syringes. Kim Kyung-tae, president of the Seongnam Medical Association, said, "At the Ministry of Health and Welfare's request to check on shortages of drugs, medical products, and medical devices, we contacted 800 facilities and received responses from 85 reporting shortages as of 9 p.m. Reports are still coming in."
According to the Seongnam Medical Association, shortages at clinic-level facilities are concentrated in syringes, needles, and IV sets. There were also reports of shortages in dispensing-related consumables such as sterile distilled water, medicine packaging paper, and medicine bottles, as well as gloves and specific drugs including Albothyl, Indenol, Dipeptiven, and normal saline. Physicians are growing anxious as their primary suppliers' online platforms are filled with notices reading "sold out," "no stock," and "orders unavailable," and orders are being canceled after placement due to insufficient inventory.
"I've heard that some clinics are rationing syringes by giving injections every other day instead of daily to patients who need daily injections," Kim said. "We've issued a total mobilization order to pharmaceutical wholesalers." If the situation drags on and supplies are completely cut off, the association plans to seek solutions such as borrowing from large hospitals.
The government has repeatedly stated that it has secured at least three months' worth of IV packaging materials and needles, and at least one month's worth of syringes, and that additional production is possible with currently available raw materials even if these stocks are depleted. However, with medical consumable prices rising daily due to raw material price increases, it appears difficult to calm concerns in the field. Under the current system, syringes, IV sets, surgical gloves, and catheters are designated as "non-reimbursable" items under national health insurance. When prices rise, individual medical institutions must bear the full burden.
Some are voicing frustration that the government's anti-hoarding measures have actually fueled confusion in the field. Lee Jung-yong, president of the Korean Association of Internal Medicine, told reporters at the spring academic conference the previous day, "My clinic only has about a week's worth of syringe inventory left. We have neither syringes nor IV sets. When supplies become scarce, there may be some speculative demand, but in the clinical field, we couldn't hoard even if we wanted to."
Kim Sung-geun, spokesperson for the KMA, said, "If there's no problem at the production stage as the government has repeatedly stated, then isn't there a problem at the distribution stage? They need to quickly identify where the problem lies and come up with solutions to resolve the difficulties in the field."
