Medicine shortages: Implications for the Australian healthcare system.

Shortages in medicine supply are usually associated with the now well-known representation of impoverished, underdeveloped countries suffering famine, episodes of vast epidemics, and accounts of immeasurable morbidity and mortality. However, it has become alarmingly clear that medicine shortages are now occurring in the most developed countries in the world and for several reasons. 1 Media headlines describe severe shortages and high costs of workarounds, impact on patient safety, and many other outcomes resulting from lack of access to necessary medicines.