SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES
Point-of-care testing: a look at the developing supply chain crisis
Supply chain interruption or restriction is becoming a fact of life, both in the clinical laboratory and in the wider healthcare environment. Here, Tony Cambridge considers the various issues affecting the supply of consumables to the near-patient testing arena.
Global territories are currently experiencing shortages of multiple products essential for delivering effective healthcare. Having started with shortages of blood collection products such as blood sample tubes, needles and related consumables, the issue is now affecting products used to deliver point-of-care services.
In some cases, service delivery has been interrupted or restricted while procurement teams source products from alternative supply chains. The worry is that this will not be alleviated in the immediate future, and service providers need to be proactive by introducing measures that assure the delivery of optimal patient care.
Why is the supply chain affected?
The supply chain has been affected in multiple ways, the major elements being as follows: n Global production sites n Raw materials n Production capacity n Cost of freight n Customs delays n Brexit (UK) n Spiralling costs – fuel, raw materials, wages
n Quality assurance n Lack of staff (COVID and vacancies) n Increased demand – patient backlogs n Delays leading to cold chain breaches.
Global production sites Most products are manufactured across multiple global locations, having to meet regulations in a range of countries. Often the production of the item is in one country, quality assurance in another, and distribution centres in yet another country. The products are shipped between these locations, meaning that once they are produced there is a significant delay until the product is released for supply in any given territory. An interruption at any stage of this chain will mean the customer waits for products, sometimes with little information about back orders or likely delivery times.
Raw materials
A shortage of raw materials, especially plastics, has been offered as a reason for delays, but now we are seeing increased disruption to the manufacturing of other products that do not rely on plastics production or availability. Sensors, test strips, and packaging have all become apparent in the last year. Even a misspelled word on product packaging or in the information for use (IFU) means that the product cannot be issued for use and may lead to the product being destroyed.
Internal supply chain Suppliers Purchasing Production Distribution Customers
The factors affecting the supply chain are unlikely to be resolved in the coming months, and some speculate that the problems will remain for the next two years.
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM SEPTEMBER 2022
Production capacity Even if raw materials are available, manufacturing has been hit hard by COVID absences and turnover. During the pandemic, companies needed to increase production of certain point- of-care products to meet the demand, often introducing new shift patterns heavily reliant on increased staff numbers. The number of production sites also increased, with the need to increase the tooling and machinery required to run the production lines continually. This was effective to meet the demand of the pandemic but may now be unsustainable
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Originally by Stern CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons
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