At Amgros, we talk about stocks before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the pandemic, the medicines procured by Amgros on behalf of the regions for public hospitals were either stored at hospital pharmacies or at suppliers.
At the start of the pandemic, the Danish Medicines Agency asked Amgros to establish a national buffer stock to cover all our product codes. There was a requirement for Denmark to have secure supplies of hospital medicines for three, six or nine months, as determined by specific guidelines.
During the pandemic, the need for a national stock solution to counteract potential supply-critical situations in the future became very clear.
After the pandemic, our Board of Directors decided to replace the buffer stock with a strategic stock, and this was established in January 2023. The stock is strategic in that we adjust stock levels to balance the need to secure supplies.
In close cooperation with hospital pharmacies, Amgros now runs this common stock facility.
Nomeco won the tendering procedure for management of the stock facility. Therefore, the strategic stock is currently located in Køge. The facility contains between 400 and 600 product codes, primarily covering treatment-critical and supply-critical medicines.
The stock is part of Danish emergency preparedness. This means that we will store medicinal products if the Danish health authorities request to us do so.
We run the strategic storage facility on the basis of a number of principles that we have set up with hospital pharmacies. Among other things, this means that we will strive to have medicines in stock for between two and four months’ consumption. Whether it is a two or four months depends on current and expected supply challenges for the individual medicines.
Besides this common strategic stock, the regions’ hospital pharmacies still have their own stocks. These supplement the strategic stock, as they usually have stocks of medicines to meet their local needs for a shorter period.
Therefore, stocks of hospital medicines should be considered as an “umbrella of stocks”, including our common strategic stocks, stocks at the regions’ hospital pharmacies, and stocks at suppliers.
Individually they are important parts of the complex work to secure supplies of medicines for patients at public hospitals in Denmark.
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Charlotte Meinicke
Head of Supply and Contract Management
My job is to help chart the strategic direction for procurement and supplies of medicines and medical devices in close cooperation with hospital pharmacies, hearing clinics and suppliers. This secures more cost-effective healthcare solutions.